Bidirectional systolic ring network
US5659781A · kind A · utility
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Jun 29, 1994 |
| Grant date | Aug 19, 1997 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jun 29, 2014 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04L12/433
- WIPO fieldDigital communication
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A ring-structured network allowing bidirectional, point-to-point, communications between a plurality of nodes (200A-E), some of them equipped with a computing element (210) and a local memory element (221), and others, possibly, serving as input/output devices. In addition to clocks and miscellaneous signals, the network is divided cross-sectionally into two pipelined busses, or pipes: one (995A-B) to signal node selection, and another (996A-B) to convey data. Values, termed tags, sent over the selection pipe are interpreted, as they arrive, at the nodes, by means of lookup tables. Several varieties of selection can be represented in these tables, some, e.g., signalling read or write transfers between the data pipe and local memory element (221). Other varieties may signal the loading of local memory address pointers (223, 224, or 225) from the data pipe. Tags are generated by a specialized node (100), which thus serves as a traffic controller. A key feature of this network is that individual tags may signal selection of a plurality of nodes, some perhaps for reading, and others possibly for writing. In this way, concurrent transfers between multiple pairs of nodes are induced on t…
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.