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:
Mar. 09, 2004
Filed:
Apr. 06, 1999
Glen H. Lowe, Union City, CA (US);
Claude Hayek, Huntington Beach, CA (US);
3Com Corporation, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
A method and system for efficiently handling a particular streaming data packet regardless of whether the streaming data packet has a first alignment or a second alignment. In one embodiment, the present invention receives a first portion of an incoming packet stream at a peripheral component adapted to be coupled to a host computer. The present embodiment then receives a second portion of the incoming packet stream at the peripheral component. Next, the present embodiment determines whether the incoming packet stream has a first alignment or a second alignment. Provided that the incoming packet stream has the second alignment, the present embodiment reconfigures the incoming packet stream to have the first alignment. The present embodiment then handles the incoming packet stream using a single processing unit adapted to handle only packet streams having the first alignment. In so doing, the present invention is able to handle an incoming packet stream having either a first alignment or a second alignment without requiring multiple processing units.