3Com Corporation

Enterasys Networks, Inc.

Terrence Hussey

James Scott Hiscock

Arnold N Sodder

Benny Siman-Tov

Donald W Monroe

Significant performance improvements can be realized in data processing systems by confining the operation of a processor within its internal register file so as to reduce the instruction count executed by the processor. Data, which is sufficiently small enough to fit within the internal register file, can be transferred into the internal register file, and execution results can be removed therefrom, using direct memory accesses that are independent of the processor, thus enabling the processor to avoid execution of load and store instructions to manipulate externally stored data. Further, the data and execution results of the processing activity are also accessed and manipulated by the processor entirely within the internal register file. The reduction in instruction count, coupled with the standardization of multiple processors and their instruction sets, enables the realization of a highly scaleable, high-performing symmetrical multi-processing system at manageable complexity and cost levels.

High-speed data processing using internal processor memory space

Packets received by a network device such as a switch are queued to either a multicast or unicast queue depending on whether a valid mapping of the packet destination address to an output port of the device exists. Each queued packet is marked with a service era during which the message is queued. The service era is advanced whenever a port mapping for a destination address becomes established and the multicast queue is non-empty. The device monitors the presence of packets on the multicast queue and the transfer of packets from the multicast queue to the output ports. A message is forwarded from the unicast queue to an output port only if the multicast queue was empty at the time the mapping was established, or if all messages on the multicast queue from service eras earlier than the service era of the message on the unicast queue have been transferred to the output port. The multicast queue is monitored via a synchronization flag variable that is updated whenever a packet is forwarded from the multicast queue. A packet is forwarded from the unicast queue only if it is marked with an era no later than the value of the synchronization flag.

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Merrimack, NH, United States of America

Terrence Hussey