Method and apparatus for hybrid packet-switched and circuit-switched flow control in a computer system
US5852718A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Jul 6, 1995 |
| Grant date | Dec 22, 1998 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jul 6, 2015 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F13/4022
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A dynamically reconfigurable hybrid computer system is provided that executes transaction requests in one of two ways--either as packet-switched transactions or as circuit-switched transactions. Each transaction request is inspected as it is issued by a master device in the system, and it is determined in each case whether the transaction should be executed as a packet-switched transaction or as a circuit-switched transaction. Preferably, all slave read requests in a uniprocessor system are executed as circuit-switched transactions, such that a system controller coupled between the master device and the slave device, upon receipt of the request, immediately schedules the datapath between the master and slave devices and suspends other, competing transactions to execute the data transfer. The states of other transactions are stored, and are restored upon completion of the circuit-switched transaction. Criteria for determining whether a given transaction request should be treated as circuit-switched include: the type of transaction requests (e.g. all slave read requests may be treated as circuit-switched); whether the system includes only one or alternatively multiple processors (e.g…
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.