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:
Oct. 26, 1999
Filed:
Mar. 03, 1998
Applicant:
Inventors:
Maurilio Tazio De Nicolo, Saratoga, CA (US);
Stephen S Ong, Fremont, CA (US);
Assignee:
Cisco Technology, Inc., San Jose, CA (US);
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Assistant Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
H04L / ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
370447 ; 370438 ; 710242 ;
Abstract
A media independent interface (MII) is utilized on each processor card of a multi-processor card system in a carrier sense multiple access/collision detection (CSMA/CD) standard bus configuration to provide a data communications bus. This permits standard Media Access Control (MAC) devices to be used with the MII. The collision domain is implemented by having each active processor card using the data communications bus assert an analog signal on a single conductor of the back plane and sense its voltage value to determine if one or more processor cards are currently accessing the bus.