The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 29, 2020
Filed:
Aug. 22, 2017
Barefoot Networks, Inc., Palo Alto, CA (US);
Remy Chang, Milpitas, CA (US);
Barefoot Networks, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
Some embodiments of the invention provide a network forwarding element that can be dynamically reconfigured to adjust its data message processing to stay within a desired operating temperature or power consumption range. In some embodiments, the network forwarding element includes (1) a data-plane forwarding circuit ('data plane') to process data tuples associated with data messages received by the IC, and (2) a control-plane circuit ('control plane') for configuring the data plane forwarding circuit. The data plane includes several data processing stages to process the data tuples. The data plane also includes an idle-signal injecting circuit that receives from the control plane configuration data that the control plane generates based on the IC's temperature. Based on the received configuration data, the idle-signal injecting circuit generates idle control signals for the data processing stages. Each stage that receives an idle control signal enters an idle state during which the majority of the components of that stage do not perform any operations, which reduces the power consumed and temperature generated by that stage during its idle state.