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:
Jul. 12, 2005
Filed:
Oct. 18, 2001
Nils Marchant, Ocean Reef, AU;
Philip D. Cole, Redwood City, CA (US);
Nils Marchant, Ocean Reef, AU;
Philip D. Cole, Redwood City, CA (US);
Network Equipment Technologies, Inc., Fremont, CA (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus are provided for caching free cell pointers pointing to memory buffers configured to store data traffic of network connections. In one example, the method stores free cell pointers into a pointer random access memory (RAM). At least one free cell pointer is temporarily stored into internal cache configured to assist in lowering a frequency of reads from and writes to the pointer RAM. A request is received from an external integrated circuit for free cell pointers. Free cell pointers are sent to queues of the external integrated circuit, wherein each free cell pointer in a queue is configured to become a write cell pointer. At least one write cell pointer and a corresponding cell descriptor is received from the external integrated circuit. Free cell pointer counter values are then calculated in order to keep track of the free cell pointers.