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.

Date of Patent:
Aug. 24, 1999

Filed:

Sep. 12, 1996
Applicant:
Inventors:

Robert E Thomas, Hudson, MA (US);

Peter J Roman, Hopkinton, MA (US);

Wing Cheung, Sudbury, MA (US);

Assignee:

Cabletron Systems, Inc., Rochester, NH (US);

Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G06F / ; G06F / ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
709234 ; 709236 ; 370235 ; 395873 ;
Abstract

An apparatus and method for transferring data from a source memory to a transmit buffer memory and then from the transmit buffer memory at a particular rate. A current time counter advances at the rate at which data is to be transmitted from the transmit buffer memory to the interface. A schedule memory stores entries, each valid entry being associated with data that is to be transmitted from the transmit buffer memory to the interface. A timestamp is associated with each valid entry in the schedule memory. Circuitry is then operative on each valid entry read from the schedule table to generate a request for a data transfer between the source memory and the transmit buffer memory; perform a data transfer from the source memory to the transmit buffer memory in response to the request; and transfer the data from the transmit buffer memory when the current time circuitry output reaches a value representing at least the same point in time that is represented by the timestamp associated with the entry for which the request was generated.


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