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:
Apr. 29, 2003
Filed:
Dec. 16, 1999
Chi-Lie Wang, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Lai-Chin Lo, Campbell, CA (US);
Ngo Thanh Ho, San Jose, CA (US);
Krishna Uppunda, Santa Clara, CA (US);
3Com Corporation, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
A transmit packet buffer (TPB) is used on a network interface card (NIC) to store downloaded packets and forward them through the media access controller (MAC) and the physical layer interface (PHY) onto the wire. A multi-function TPB is implemented to allow the multiple usage of this buffer. Packets may be downloaded to this buffer through multiple sources. Different types of the packets may each be stored at predefined locations. For example, while the second half of the TPB is used to transmit keep-alive or alert-on-LAN packets, the first half may be used to compare received packets with a wake-up pattern for system wake-up. With multi-function support, various PC management functions may be implemented more effectively and with reduced cost.