National Semiconductor Corporation

Mark Landguth

Paul Cheng

A network-to-CPU interface circuit interfaces an isochronous physical layer to an ISA bus such that a host CPU connected to the ISA bus can communicate with the isochronous physical layer. Inbound B-channel interface circuity is connectable to receive, from the isochronous physical layer, an inbound data stream which includes a plurality of B-channels time division multiplexed into time division multiplexed (TDM) frames. The TDM frames have a predetermined format that defines at least one logical stream such that each logical stream comprises those B-channels that are time division multiplexed into corresponding predetermined locations within the TDM frames. An inbound buffer portion of a memory is provided to hold the received inbound data stream, and an outbound buffer portion of the memory is provided for holding an outbound data stream which, like the inbound data stream, includes a plurality of B-channels time division multiplexed into time division multiplexed (TDM) frames. ISA bus interface circuitry is provided for channeling a selected inbound logical stream from the inbound memory buffer to the host CPU, via the ISA bus, in response to a request from the host CPU. The ISA bus interface circuitry is also for receiving a data stream from the host CPU, via the ISA bus, and for channeling that received data stream, as an outbound logical stream, to the TDM frames in the outbound memory buffer according to the predetermined format. Outbound B-channel interface circuity is provided to transmit the outbound data stream from the outbound memory buffer to the isochronous physical layer.

Circuit for logical stream sorting at CPU transfer time division for

A first station is connectable to a second station for transmitting a predetermined fixed amount of data to the second station over a predetermined time period to achieve a predetermined fixed data transmission rate. The predetermined time period consists of a plurality of constituent time periods. An amount of substantive data, which is less than the predetermined fixed amount of data, is transmitted from the first station to the second station in the predetermined time period by transmitting the substantive data during a portion of the constituent time periods and transmitting 'null' data during the remainder of the constituent time periods. Thus, over the predetermined time period, the substantive data is transmitted at an effective rate that is less than the predetermined fixed data transmission rate. The null data may be transmitted interspersed with the substantive data, and the determination of how to intersperse the null data with the substantive data may be according to an interpolation algorithm, such as Bresenham's algorithm.

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La Jolla, CA, United States of America

Mark Landguth