Direct network access by a memory mapped peripheral device for scheduled data transfer on the network

Abstract

A network interface peripheral device (NIP) may include a network interface for communicating with a network, and an interconnect interface for communicating with a processor subsystem. First buffers in the NIP may hold data received from and/or distributed to peer peripherals by the NIP, and second buffers may hold payload data of scheduled data streams transmitted to and/or received from the network by the NIP. Payload data from the data in the first buffers may be stored in the second buffers and transmitted to the network according to transmit events generated based on a received schedule. Data may be received from the network according to receive events generated based on the received schedule, and distributed from the second buffers to the first buffers. A centralized system configuration entity may generate the schedule, manage configuration of the NIP, and coordinate the internal configuration of the NIP with a network configuration flow.