Netronome Systems Incorporated

Chirag P Patel

Gavin J Stark

Salma Mirza

Packet information is stored in split fashion such that a first part is stored in a first device and a second part is stored in a second device. A split packet transmission DMA engine receives an egress packet descriptor. The descriptor does not indicate where the second part is stored but contains information about the first part. Using this information, the DMA engine causes a part of the first part to be transferred from the first device to the DMA engine. Address information in the first part indicates where the second part is stored. The DMA engine uses the address information to cause the second part to be transferred from the second device to the DMA engine. When both the part of the first part and the second part are stored in the DMA engine, then the entire packet is transferred in ordered fashion to an egress device.

Split packet transmission DMA engine

An egress packet modifier includes a script parser and a pipeline of processing stages. Rather than performing egress modifications using a processor that fetches and decodes and executes instructions in a classic processor fashion, and rather than storing a packet in memory and reading it out and modifying it and writing it back, the packet modifier pipeline processes the packet by passing parts of the packet through the pipeline. A processor identifies particular egress modifications to be performed by placing a script code at the beginning of the packet. The script parser then uses the code to identify a specific script of opcodes, where each opcode defines a modification. As a part passes through a stage, the stage can carry out the modification of such an opcode. As realized using current semiconductor fabrication process, the packet modifier can modify 200M packets/second at a sustained rate of up to 100 gigabits/second.

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Nashua, NH, United States of America

Chirag P Patel