Qlogic Corporation

Lockheed Martin Corporation

Mark Alan Owen

Frank R Dropps

Ernest G Kohlwey

Craig M Verba

Edward C Ross

James Kunz

Gary M Papenfuss

Leonard W Haseman

David Gordon Hanson

William J Gustafson

Kenneth L Graber

Dallas Dale Redlin

Method and system for a network switch element is provided. The switch element includes a plurality of megaports, each megaport uniquely identified by a unique megaport address identifier for network addressing. Each megaport includes a plurality of operational ports, each operational port identified by a unique operational port address identifier. The switch element also includes a local crossbar for communication between the plurality of operational ports, and a shared logic module configured to provide common control of the plurality of operational ports within a megaport to allow operational ports to share resource of a single megaport to route network packets there between. The switch element also includes a global crossbar configured to allow communication between the megaports.

Method and system for network switch element

A high-speed Fiber Channel switch element in a Fiber Channel network is provided. The Fiber Channel switch element includes, a rate select module that allows a port in the Fiber Channel switch element to operate at a rate equal to and/or higher than 10 gigabits per second ('G'). The port may operate at 20 G, 40 G or at a rate greater than 40 G. Also, a cut status is provided for cut-through routing between ports operating at different speed. Plural transmit and receive lines are used for port operation at a rate equal to or higher than 10 G.

High speed fibre channel switch element

A high-speed Fiber Channel switch element in a Fiber Channel network is provided. The Fiber Channel switch element includes, a rate select module that allows a port in the Fiber Channel switch element to operate at a rate equal to and/or higher than 10 gigabits per second ('G'). The port may operate at 20G, 40G or at a rate greater than 40G. Also, a cut status is provided for cut-through routing between ports operating at different speed. Plural transmit and receive lines are used for port operation at a rate equal to or higher than 10G.

Method and system for a switch element is provided. The method includes (a) receiving a portion of a packet at a port of the switch element; (b) generating a tag based on an estimated packet size obtained from the portion of the packet; (c) sending the tag with the estimated packet size to a transmit segment of the port; (d) selecting a request from among a plurality of pending requests for processing the packet associated with the tag; (e) receiving an actual packet size for the packet in step (a); (f) determining if the actual packet size is different from the estimated packet size; and (g) adjusting an arbitration weight used for selecting the request in step (d), if the actual packet size is different from the estimated packet size.

Method and system for tag arbitration in switches

A method and system for distributing credit using a fiber channel switch element is provided. The switch element includes, a wait threshold counter that is used to set up a status for a port that has to wait for certain duration to send a frame due to lack of buffer to buffer credit; a credit module that controls buffer to buffer credit for a transmit segment of the fiber channel switch element; and a virtual lane credit module with a counter that is incremented every time a frame assigned to a virtual lane is sent and decreased every time a VC_RDY is received. The method includes, determining if a VC_RDY primitive is received; and allocating credit to a virtual lane that is not at its maximum credit, after the VC_RDY primitive is received.

Method and system for buffer-to-buffer credit recovery in fibre channel systems using virtual and/or pseudo virtual lanes

A method and system for processing received and transmit data by an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) from a network link. The method for received data includes swapping received data polarity if swap-polarity ability is set and swapping byte lanes for the received data if swap-lane ability is set. The method for transmit data includes swapping byte lanes for transmit data, if swap-byte lane ability is set and swapping data polarity if swap-polarity ability is set. The ASIC includes a network connector that receives and transmits data from the network link.

Method and system for using application specific integrated circuits

Method and system for routing fiber channel frames using a fiber channel switch element is provided. The method includes, inserting a time stamp value in a fiber channel frame that is received at a receive segment of the fibre channel switch element; determining if a timeout occurs after a frame arrives at a receive buffer; and processing the frame if the timeout occurred. The method also includes, determining if a delta time value, which provides an accumulated wait time for a frame, is present in frame data; subtracting the delta time stamp value from a global time stamp value and using the resulting time stamp value to determine frame timeout status in the fiber channel switch element. A timeout checker circuit declares a timeout after comparing a time stamp value that is inserted in a fiber channel frame with a programmed time out value and a global counter value.

Method and system for managing traffic in fibre channel systems

Method and system for distributing credit in fibre channel systems

Method and system for managing frame traffic in a Fibre Channel network with plural switch elements with receive and transmit ports is provided. The method includes limiting a number of R_RDYs sent between frames, when frames are waiting to be transmitted at a given time, for minimizing a number of ordered sets transmitted between frames. The switch element includes a R_RDY control module that stores a number of R_RDYs that a port has to send, stores an actual number of R_RDYs that are sent since a last frame is transmitted; stores a number of R_RDYs that are sent between frames and this number of R_RDYs can be programmed to be less than two; and stores a threshold value that is less than or equal to a maximum R_RDY count value.

Method and system for managing frame flow in fibre channel systems

Method and system for routing fiber channel frames using a fiber channel switch element is provided. The method includes, inserting a time stamp value in a fiber channel frame that is received at a receive segment of the fiber channel switch element; determining if a timeout occurs after a frame arrives at a receive buffer; and processing the frame if the timeout occurred. The method also includes, determining if a delta time value, which provides an accumulated wait time for a frame, is present in frame data; subtracting the delta time stamp value from a global time stamp value and using the resulting time stamp value to determine frame timeout status in the fiber channel switch element. A timeout checker circuit declares a timeout after comparing a time stamp value that is inserted in a fiber channel frame with a programmed time out value and global counter value.

A system and method for transmitting and bundling network packets is provided. The incoming network packet size is determined and if the remote buffer space is sufficient to hold the network packet it is transmitted to the destination port. If the remote buffer space is not enough to hold the network packet it is discarded. The system includes an arbitration module that receives remote buffer space information and transmits the network packet if the remote buffer space has enough space to hold the packet. The arbitration module also determines if a second network packet is from a same source port having a same source virtual lane, and has the same destination virtual lane (bundling conditions). If the second network packet meets the bundling conditions, then it is transmitted after the first network packet, even if other packets were received before the second network packet.

Method and system for controlling packet flow in networks

An integrated video distribution system for distributing video signals from a plurality of sources. The system includes a digitizer arrangement arranged to receive analog video signals from a plurality of video sources. The analog video signals are digitized in YCrCb video format and converted to streams of digital video data. The video data is multiplexed and transmitted on a digital video bus having a plurality of video channels. In one embodiment, the digitizers and video bus are integrated with a backplane arrangement that includes expansion slots for a plurality of terminal controllers. The expansion slots provide connections to the video bus. Each terminal controller mounted on the backplane arrangement can be coupled to a display terminal and an input device. The terminal controller selects one or more of the input streams of video data in response to control signals from the input device and converts the selected video data to an analog video signal for output to a display terminal.

Growing community of inventors

Apple Valley, MN, United States of America

Mark Alan Owen