Router chip with quad-crossbar and hyperbar personalities
US5345556A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Apr 30, 1991 |
| Grant date | Sep 6, 1994 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Apr 30, 2011 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F11/1423
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A router circuit for selectively connecting an input terminal of the router circuit to either a specified output terminal of the router circuit (crossbar personality) or to any of a group of output terminals of the router circuit associated with a single output channel (hyperbar personality). The router circuit is made configurable as either a crossbar switch or a hyperbar switch by dividing the router chip into sections, where each section is associated with a group of input terminals, and wherein various grant circuits within each of the sections have enable/disable input terminals connected by controllable switches to either enable/disable output terminals of grant circuits in an adjacent section (hyperbar personality) or to fixed logic levels (crossbar personality). In the crossbar configuration, for each input terminal of a section, only one grant circuit per channel is enabled. Each of the sections has a different set of grant circuits enabled per channel so that no two sections can access a same output terminal of the router chip. In the hyperbar configuration, the sections are made transparent, and grant circuits are enabled or disabled depending on output wire availability…
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.