Network interface
First Claim
1. In a connection-based data transmission system a network interface for connecting a host computer to a network over a virtual connection, comprising:
- a network interface card having a Peripheral component interconnect interface, a receive block and a transmit block connected thereto, a bus connecting said peripheral component interconnect interface to said computer and means for connecting said transmit block and said receive block to said network, said host computer having TXin and TXdone queues and RXfree and RXdone queues; and
,means within said RX and TX blocks for implementing a multiword frame descriptor format utilized by said queues and said peripheral component interconnect interface a mode description in said frame descriptor specifying one of a plurality of different modes such that said frame descriptor accommodates Mode M, Mode S and Optimized Mode M.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A packet based data transmission system includes a flexible optimized nonocking transmit interface that incorporates optimized buffer modes, dynamic and static chaining, streaming and the utilization of small packet formats. Static chaining refers to connecting together the linked list for successive packets for the same transmit channel or virtual channel. Dynamic chaining refers to means by which the network interface performs this chaining automatically, thereby solving a blocking problem. On the transmit side, streaming refers to initiating the transmission of packet data before the entire packet data has been presented to the interface. This, in turn, permits more rapid recycling of the buffer space. On the receive side, streaming refers to initiating the processing of packet data before the entire packet has been received. The packet transmission system also includes a receive interface that incorporates a chunking system in which a buffer is divided into multiple chunks or segments to accommodate different size packets. Additionally, the receive interface includes an optimized linked list scheme to support chunking in which no linking element is required for the first buffer in the linked list. In one embodiment a small packet format is provided to reduce the relative overhead in sending small packets. In another embodiment the optimized buffer mode associated with the receive side can be utilized on the transmit interface for further reducing overhead.
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Citations
21 Claims
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1. In a connection-based data transmission system a network interface for connecting a host computer to a network over a virtual connection, comprising:
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a network interface card having a Peripheral component interconnect interface, a receive block and a transmit block connected thereto, a bus connecting said peripheral component interconnect interface to said computer and means for connecting said transmit block and said receive block to said network, said host computer having TXin and TXdone queues and RXfree and RXdone queues; and
,means within said RX and TX blocks for implementing a multiword frame descriptor format utilized by said queues and said peripheral component interconnect interface a mode description in said frame descriptor specifying one of a plurality of different modes such that said frame descriptor accommodates Mode M, Mode S and Optimized Mode M. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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- 13. A network interface for the transmission of frames of information from a host computer over a network, said interface having one or more buffers, a linked list of buffers, and a multiword frame descriptor to indicate either a single buffer or the head of said linked list of buffers, with each of the buffers in said linked list of buffers having its own buffer descriptor said frame descriptor including a mode designation specifying one of a Plurality or different modes such that said frame descriptor accommodates Mode M. Mode S and Optimized Mode M.
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20. A network interface for the transmission of frames of information from a host computer over a network, said interface having one or more buffers, a linked list of buffers, and a multi-word frame descriptor to indicate either a single buffer or the head of said linked list of buffers, with each of the buffers of in said linked list of buffers having its own descriptor buffer, the formats of said frame and buffer descriptors being such as to permit static chaining, dynamic chaining and streaming, all from the same descriptor format.
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21. In a connection-based data transmission system, a network interface for connecting a host computer to a network comprising:
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a network interface card having a peripheral component interconnect interface, a receive block and transmit block connected thereto, a bus connecting said peripheral component interconnect interface to said host computer and means for connecting said transmit block and said receive block to said network, said host computer having TXin and TXdone queues and RXfree and RXdone queues; and
,means within said RX and TX blocks for implementing a multi-word frame descriptor format utilized by said queues and said peripheral component interface, said multi-word frame descriptor formats supporting an Optimized Mode M format.
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Specification