Method and system for memory management in a network processing system

• US 6,981,027 B1
• Filed: 04/10/2000
• Issued: 12/27/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 04/10/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Woodland, Gail Irene, Heddes, Marco C., Verrilli, Colin Beaton, Hariharan, Seeta, Rao, Sridhar, Gallo, Anthony Matteo
• Primary Examiner(s): Follansbee, John
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen, Dustin
• Application Number:
  US09/546,653
• Time in Patent Office: 2,087 Days
• Field of Search: 370/249, 370/429, 370/463, 370/466, 370/469, 709/223, 709/328, 709/400, 709/213, 455/507, 711/147, 711/148, 710/3, 707/205
• US Class Current: 709/216
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/3009 Header conversion, routing tables or routing tags
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/35 Switches specially adapted for specific applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/90 Buffering arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99956 File allocation

Abstract

A method and system for memory management in a network processing system provides for allocation of physical memory areas within network processors coupled to a control point processor by a bus. The allocation scheme provides a memory management layer without requiring a complete operating system interface and supports asynchronous completion of the allocation requests. Multicast allocation is supported allowing an allocation to be simultaneously requested on multiple network processors. The allocation mechanism returns a token, which may then be used to access the memory location via a protocol over the bus, and a single token may refer to an allocation made on several network processors where the actual physical addresses and memory configurations are different.

Claims

1. A method for managing memory in a network processing system having a control point processor (CP) coupled to a plurality of network processors (NPs) via a bus, said method comprising:

providing a control point memory manager within said CP;

providing an NP memory manager within each of said plurality of NPs;

in response to a request of an allocation of memory by an application within said CP, transmitting said request from said CP to said plurality of NPs over said bus to request an allocation of a memory location within one of said plurality of NPs; and

allocating a physical memory within one of said plurality of NPs and returning a token representing said memory allocation from said one of said NPs to said control memory manager such that read/write accesses to said physical memory are available to said application.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said method further includes registering said application within said control point memory manager.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said method further includes building a table of references by said control point memory manager, wherein said table of references contain said registered application.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said method further comprises:

collecting responses from said plurality of NPs;

waiting until a response has been received or a timeout has occurred from each of said plurality of NPs; and

notifying said application that all of said request has completed.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein said notifying is performed by a callback mechanism that calls back a callback routine within said application.

6. The method of claim 1, said method further comprising:

requesting that a data value be written to a location corresponding to said allocation by providing said token within a transmission from said CP to said NP over said bus; and

in response to receiving said transmission, writing said data value to said location.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

requesting that a data value be read from a location corresponding to said allocation by providing said token within a transmission from said CP to said NP over said bus; and

in response to receiving said transmission, retrieving said data value from said location and returning said data value to said CP.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said request contains a value specifying a preference for allocation of fast memory, and wherein said allocating allocates fast memory on said NP in conformity with said value.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said method further comprises rejecting an access to said allocation until a pending operation is complete.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein said method further comprises:

requesting a memory availability information from said plurality of NPs, wherein said request specifies a memory speed category, and wherein said request is transmitted over said bus to said plurality of NPs; and

in response to said request, returning said memory availability information from said plurality of NPs over said bus.

11. A network processing system, said network processing system comprising:

a control point processor (CP);

a plurality of network processors (NPs) coupled to said CP via a bus;

a control point memory manager within said CP;

an NP memory manager within each of said plurality of NPs;

in response to a request of an allocation of memory by an application within said CP, means for transmitting said request from said CP to said plurality of NPs over said bus to request an allocation of a memory location within one of said plurality of NPs; and

means for allocating a physical memory within one of said plurality of NPs and returning a token representing said memory allocation from said one of said NPs to said control memory manager such that read/write accesses to said physical memory are available to said application.

12. The network processing system of claim 11, wherein said network processing system further includes means for registering said application with said control point memory manager.

13. The network processing system of claim 12, wherein said network processing system further includes means for building a table of references by said control point memory manager, wherein said table of references contain said registered application.

14. The network processing system of claim 11, wherein said network processing system further includes

means for collecting responses from said more than one network processor,

means for waiting until one of a response has been received or a timeout has occurred from each of said more than one NP, and

means for notifying said application that all of said requests have completed, in response to an end of said wait.

15. The network processing system of claim 14, wherein said notification is provided by a callback mechanism within said CP that calls back a callback routine within said application and wherein an address of said callback routine is supplied by said application upon said registration.

16. The network processing system of claim 11, wherein said that network processing system further includes

means for requesting a data value be written to a location corresponding to said allocation by providing said token within a transmission from said CP to said NP over said bus, and

means for writing said data value to said location in response to said NP component receiving said transmission.

17. The network processing system of claim 11, wherein said network processing system further includes

means for requesting a data value be read from a location corresponding to said allocation by providing said token from said CP to said NP over said bus, and

in response to receiving said transmission, means for retrieving said data value from said location and returns said data value to said CP.

18. The network processing system of claim 11, wherein said request contains a value specifying a preference for allocation of fast memory, and wherein said allocating means allocates fast memory on said NP in conformity with said value.

19. The network processing system of claim 11, wherein said network processing system further includes a means for rejecting an access to said allocation until a pending operation has been completed.

20. The network processing system of claim 11, wherein said network processing system further includes

means for requesting a memory availability information from said plurality of NPs, wherein said request specifies a memory speed category, wherein said request is transmitted over said bus to said plurality of NPs, and

in response to said request, means for returning said memory availability information from said plurality of NPs over said bus.