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:
Jan. 07, 2003
Filed:
May. 21, 1999
Ching Yu, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Xiaohua Zhuang, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Bahadir Erimli, Campbell, CA (US);
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus are disclosed for reclaiming frame buffers used to store data frames received by a network switch. The apparatus includes a multicopy queue for queuing entries corresponding to received data frames which must be transmitted by multiple output ports of the network switch, a free buffer queue for queuing frame pointers that identify locations in an external memory where reclaimed frame buffers are located, and a multicopy circuit that retrieves entries from the multicopy queue and determines if all copies of a received data frame have been transmitted by the specified output ports. The multicopy circuit also reclaims one or more frame buffers, based on the size of the received data frame. The present invention allows efficient reclaiming of frame buffers regardless of whether the received data frame is stored in a single frame buffer or multiple frame buffers.