| US 7,539,184 B2 | ||
| Reconfigurable interconnect/switch for selectably coupling network devices, media, and switch fabric | ||
| Edoardo Campini, Mesa, Ariz. (US); Douglas Lee Stahl, Phoenix, Ariz. (US); and David R. Formisano, Chandler, Ariz. (US) | ||
| Assigned to Intel Corporation, Santa Clara, Calif. (US) | ||
| Filed on Dec. 30, 2004, as Appl. No. 11/27,344. | ||
| Prior Publication US 2006/0146808 A1, Jul. 06, 2006 | ||
| Int. Cl. H04L 12/50 (2006.01) | ||
| U.S. Cl. 370—388 [370/389; 716/12] | 7 Claims |
| 1. A network line card, comprising:
a media interface;
a switch fabric interface;
a plurality of network processor units (NPUs), each NPU within the plurality of NPUs including a media switch fabric (MSF)
interface that may configured to support media-based transmit and receive interfaces and switch fabric-based transmit and
receive interfaces;
a media-based switch including a plurality of media-based transmit and receive interfaces,
a cross-connect having a plurality of groups of input/output (I/O ports), the cross connect enabling a signal for a given
I/O port in a group within the plurality of groups to be selectively routed to another I/O port in that group; and
a mechanism to selectively couple, for each NPU MSF interface, media-based transmit and receive signals to the media-based
switch and switch fabric-based transmit and receive signals to the cross-connect,
wherein a given NPU is enabled to communicate with another NPU and the media interface via media transmit and receive signals
routed through the media-based switch, and each NPU is enabled to communicate with the switch fabric interface via signals
routed through the cross-connect.
|