Patent · US Expired

Memory management system and algorithm for network processor architecture

US7006505B1 · kind B1 · utility

50Cited by
15References
44Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateOct 23, 2000
Grant dateFeb 28, 2006
Priority date
Expiry dateDec 16, 2022

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04L49/90
  • WIPO fieldDigital communication
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

An embodiment of this invention pertains to a system and method for balancing memory accesses to a low cost memory unit in order to sustain and guarantee a desired line rate regardless of the incoming traffic pattern. The memory unit may include, for example, a group of dynamic random access memory units. The memory unit is divided into memory channels and each of the memory channels is further divided into memory lines, each of the memory lines includes one or more buffers that correspond to the memory channels. The determination as to which of one or more buffers within a memory line an incoming information element is stored is based on factors such as the number of buffers pending to be read within each of the memory channels, the number of buffers pending to be written within each of the memory channels, and the number of buffers within each of the memory channels that has data written to it and is waiting to be read.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.