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:
Sep. 09, 2003
Filed:
May. 21, 1999
Bahadir Erimli, Campbell, CA (US);
Vallath Nandakumar, Campbell, CA (US);
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Abstract
An apparatus and method are disclosed for maintaining free buffer information for a network switch. A first Random Access Memory (RAM), located on the network switch, functions to store values that indicate whether or not free buffers, located in a second RAM, are available for storing received data frames. An input logic is provided for placing values in the first RAM to indicate which free buffers are available for storing the data frames. When free buffers are required to store data frames, the output logic searches the first RAM and locates values that indicate available free buffers in the second RAM. The output logic then generates buffer pointers that address the locations of the free buffers in the second RAM. The buffer pointers that are generated are stored in a small capacity queue on the network switch to provide immediate availability to free buffers.