Intel Corporation

Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Silicon Graphics, Incorporated

Intel Corproation

Charles E Narad

Neil MacAvoy

Kevin Roland Fall

Pradip Shankar

Leonard M Rand

Jerry J Hall

Kevin B Normoyle

Satyanarayana Nishtala

William C Van Loo

Zahir Ebrahim

Sun-den Chen

Leslie Dean Kohn

Yim Pun

Larry B Huston

Sridhar Lakshmanamurthy

Yousef A Khalidi

Madhusudhan Talluri

Raj S Yavatkar

Louis F Coffin, Iii

Stephen Alan Chessin

Shing I Kong

Raymond Ng

Lawrence B Huston

Glen R Anderson

Mark B Rosenbluth

Debra Bernstein

William N Joy

Joseph A Bennett

Robert Yung

Daniel E Lenoski

Alok Kumar Mathur

Kin-Yip Liu

Thomas L Lyon

Santosh Balakrishnan

David M Parry

Gregory L Limes

Dave Gish

Apparatus and computer program product for a programmable packet processing platform for accelerating network infrastructure applications that have been structured so as to separate the stages of classification and action. A pipeline comprising a collection of elements for handling network packets is established under which respective elements are capable of including multiple entries, and respective entries are capable of defining whether the respective entry matches a respective network packet and at least one corresponding action for handling the respective network packet. Defining whether the respective entry matches a respective network packet comprises defining via a predefined set of identifiers to indicate respective network protocol fields of different network protocols. Exemplary actions include dropping packets, forwarding packets, encrypting packets, decrypting packets, and classification of packet flows.

Apparatus and computer program product for handling network packets using a pipeline of elements

Methods and apparatus relating to a tightly coupled scalar and Boolean processor are described. In an embodiment, a Boolean unit may include a result vector subunit. The result vector subunit may be controlled by an instruction flow that is managed by a scalar unit. Other embodiments are also disclosed.

Tightly coupled scalar and boolean processor with result vector subunit controlled by instruction flow

In general, in one aspect, the disclosure describes a method that includes maintaining statistics, at a network interface, metering operation of the network interface. The statistics are transferred by direct memory access from the network interface to a memory accessed by at least one processor.

Direct memory access (DMA) transfer of network interface statistics

Embodiments are generally directed to an apparatus for determining compatibility between devices. In one embodiment, a table including a module's parameters and rules associated therewith is obtained from a module. The rules are applied to a slot's parameters to determine the module's compatibility with the slot upon coupling to the slot.

Apparatus for determining compatibility between devices

A mechanism that associates a mutual exclusion lock with a shared data item and provides ownership of the mutual exclusion lock to multiple execution threads that execute code operating on the shared data item in a sequential order.

Method and apparatus for serialized mutual exclusion

A method and apparatus for placement of temporary relevant data are disclosed. In one embodiment, the apparatus comprising one or more memories through which a producer provides data for access by a consumer in a memory-based producer-consumer relationship, and an agent to monitor access by the producer and consumer to the one or more memories and to direct placement of produced data into at least one of the one or more memories that is closer to the consumer, wherein placement occurs at a time determined by the agent.

Temporally relevant data placement

Embodiments are generally direct to a method and apparatus for generating a header in a communication network. In one embodiment, receiving at a node on a first communication link a protocol data unit (PDU), generating a header that is non-specific to a particular communication protocol associated with the PDU when received at the node, the header to facilitate encapsulation and transportation of the PDU through a second communication link to deliver the PDU to a memory-based service interface of another node on the second communication link.

Method and apparatus for generating a header in a communication network

Embodiments are generally directed to a method and apparatus for determining compatibility between devices. In one embodiment, a table including a module's parameters and rules associated therewith is obtained from a module. The rules are applied to a slot's parameters to determine the module's compatibility with the slot upon coupling to the slot.

Method and apparatus for determining compatibility between devices

A method and system to aggregate packets. A plurality of packets are received from a medium. The packets are aggregated into a single Advanced Switching ('AS') packet and transmitted onto an AS fabric as a single AS packet.

Packet aggregation protocol for advanced switching

A method may be used for assembling received data segments into full packets in an initial processing stage in a processor. The method may include receiving a plurality of data segments from a packet and determining a first storage location for each of the plurality of data segments. The method may further include storing each of the plurality of data segments in its determined first storage location and determining a second storage location for each of the plurality of data segments, the second storage locations being logically ordered to represent the order the data segments originally occurred in the packet. The method may also include storing each of the plurality of data segments in its determined second storage location to re-assemble the packet and releasing the first storage location associated with each data segment after storing the data segment in its determined second storage location. The method may additionally include, upon the storing of an end of packet data segment from the packet in its determined second storage location, passing control of the plurality of related data segments to a next processing stage in the processor.

Method and apparatus to assemble data segments into full packets for efficient packet-based classification

Methods, software and systems of dynamically controlling push cache operations are presented. One method, which may also be implemented in software and/or hardware, monitors performance parameters and enables or disables push cache operations depending on whether the performance parameters are within a predetermined range. Another method, which may also be implemented in software and/or hardware, monitors an amount of credits associated with a device and enables or disables push cache operations dependent upon whether the device has sufficient remaining credits.

Software controlled dynamic push cache

The present application describes a compiler of a network packet classification programming language that generates code for processors such as an application processor and a processing engine. The programming language includes a variety of instructions including an instruction to declare a network protocol and an instruction to specify a rule and at least one action to perform if the rule applies. A processor executing instructions generated by the compiler assigns values based on instructions to declare a network protocol and applies the rule instructions to received packets. The programming language may also include other instructions such as an instruction to search a set of values and identify whether an encapsulated packet header is present in a packet.

Compiler for computer programming language including instruction statements for handling network packets

Described herein are techniques to perform reassembly of a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) data stream from payloads of TCP segments of a bidirectional TCP connection between a first TCP end-point operating at a first network device and a second TCP end-point operating at a second network device.

Reassembly of a transmission control protocol (TCP) data stream from payloads of TCP segments of a bidirectional TCP connection

Growing community of inventors

Los Altos, CA, United States of America

Charles E Narad