DATA PROCESSING SYSTEM HAVING DISTRIBUTED PROCESSING MEANS FOR USING INTRINSIC LATENCIES OF THE SYSTEM

• US 20100040045A1
• Filed: 05/22/2009
• Published: 02/18/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/14/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Stmicroelectronics Rousset SAS (STMicroelectronics NV)
• Original Assignee: Stmicroelectronics Rousset SAS (STMicroelectronics NV)
• Inventors: Martinez, Albert
• Granted Patent: US 9,019,950 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/351
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4022 using switching circuits, e.g. switching matrix, connection or expansion network G06F13/4009 takes precedence

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to a method for routing data between a sending unit and a receiving unit linked by a network in a processing system comprising several units, the method comprising steps of routing data in the network between the sending unit and the receiving unit, and of applying a process to the routed data, the process comprising several steps which are applied to the data by different units in the network receiving the data, to use latency times in data routing.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

routing data in a network between a sending unit and a receiving unit, the sending unit and the receiving unit being linked by the network in a processing system comprising a plurality of other units that receive the data as the data is routed between the sending and the receiving units; and

applying a particular process to the data, as the data is routed between the sending unit and the receiving unit, by;

for each of the plurality of other units that receive the data as the data is routed between the sending unit and the receiving unit, performing one or more steps of the particular process based on latency times introduced by the unit as the data is routed.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the routing includes sending a piece of information in association with the data, the piece of information used to determine progress of the particular process applied to the data.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the particular process applied to the data is one of a ciphering or deciphering process, depending on an identity of the sending unit or the receiving unit, and a data formatting process.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the particular process applied to the data comprises several iterations, wherein each of the plurality of other units that receive the data as the data is routed executes a number of the several iterations on the data.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the routing further includes sending in association with the data a piece of information used to determine one of a number of the several iterations that have been executed on the data and a number of the several iterations that remain to be executed on the data.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the routing further includes routing the data in frames containing the piece of information used to determine the number of the several iterations that remain to be executed.

7. The method according to claim 4, wherein the number of the several iterations that each of the plurality of other units executes is a fixed number.

8. The method according to claim 4, wherein the number of the several iterations that each of plurality of other units executes is adapted to a time for data to transit in the unit.

9. A system, comprising:

a transmission network; and

a plurality of distributed units linked via the transmission network,

wherein the system is configured to route data between a sending unit and a receiving unit via at least some of the plurality of distributed units and to apply a particular process having plural steps to the data as the data is routed between the sending unit and the receiving unit, and wherein each of the at least some of the plurality of distributed units is configured to perform at least some of the plural steps of the particular process on the data received by the distributed unit as the data is routed between the sending and the receiving units based at least in part on latency times introduced by the data routing.

10. The system according to claim 9, further configured to send in association with the data a piece of information used to determine progress of the particular process that is applied to the data as the data is routed between the sending unit and the receiving unit.

11. The system according to claim 9, wherein the particular process is at least one of a ciphering or deciphering process depending on an identity of the sending or receiving units, and a data formatting process.

12. The system according to claim 9, wherein the particular process comprises several iterations, wherein each of the at least some of the plurality of distributed units executes a number of the several iterations on the data.

13. The system according to claim 12, further configured to route the data with an associated piece of information used to determine a number of the several iterations executed or still to be executed on the data.

14. The system according to claim 13, wherein the system is further configured, when routing the data between the sending unit and the receiving unit, to route the data in frames containing the piece of information.

15. The system according to claim 12, wherein the number of the several iterations executed by each of the at least some of the plurality of distributed units is a fixed number.

16. The system according to claim 12, wherein the number of the several iterations executed by each of the at least some of the plurality of distributed units is adapted to a time for data to transit in the distributed unit.

17. The system according to claim 9, wherein the transmission network is a local bus interconnecting the plurality of distributed units in the system.

18. The system according to claim 9 further comprising several sub-systems networked through routers forming nodes of a network, each sub-system comprising a network interface unit connected to one of the routers, the network interface units and the routers each comprising a shared processing unit for executing one or more iterations of the particular process.

19. The system according to claim 9, wherein the system is produced on a semiconductor chip.

20. A data processing system, comprising:

a transmission network;

a plurality of distributed units interconnected via the transmission network; and

means for routing data between a sending unit and a receiving unit via at least some of the plurality of distributed units and applying a particular process having plural steps to the data as the data is routed between the sending unit and the receiving unit,

wherein each of the at least some of the plurality of distributed units has means for executing at least some of the plural steps of the particular process on the data that the distributed unit receives as the data is routed between the sending unit and the receiving unit based at least in part on latency times introduced by routing the data between the sending and receiving units.

21. The data processing system according to claim 20, wherein the means for routing data is further for, when routing the data between the sending unit and the receiving unit, sending in association with the data, a piece of information used to determine progress of the particular process being applied to the data as the data is routed.

22. The data processing system according to claim 20, wherein the particular process is at least one of a ciphering or deciphering process depending on a identity of one of the sending unit and the receiving unit.

23. The data processing system according to claim 20 wherein the particular process is a data formatting process.

24. The data processing system according to claim 20, wherein the particular process comprises several iterations, wherein each of the at least some of the plurality of distributed units having means for executing a number of the several iterations on the data.

25. The data processing system according to claim 24, wherein the number of the several iterations executed by each of the at least some of the plurality of distributed units is adapted to a time for data to transit in the distributed unit.

26. The data processing system according to claim 20 further comprising several sub-systems networked through routers forming nodes of a network, each sub-system comprising a network interface unit connected to one of the routers, the network interface units and the routers each comprising a shared processing unit for executing one or more iterations of the particular process.