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. 04, 2001
Filed:
Sep. 30, 1998
Christian D. Kasper, Carrollton, TX (US);
STMicroelectronics, Inc., Carrollton, TX (US);
Abstract
A method and system of controlling the transfer of data arranged in frames between a host and network device, such as an HDLC controller, having a shared system memory is disclosed. A frame is received within frame data buffers of the shared system memory. A single frame can span more than three frame data buffers. A descriptor ring has respective descriptors that describe and point to a respective frame data buffer and ownership by either the host or device. The descriptors for an associated frame data buffer that received a frame are placed together to form a descriptor chain having first and last descriptors. Only the first and last descriptors are updated within the descriptor chain to grant ownership of first and last descriptors and any intermediate descriptors to a desired host or device to enhance bus utilization.