Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 16
Claim 1
Independent Claim
161 words
An ATM network interface, comprising: (a) a physical layer interface having (i) transmit and receive line interfaces; (ii) transmit and receive framers and overhead processors coupled to respective ones of said transmit and receive line interfaces; and (iii) transmit and receive cell processors coupled to respective ones of said transmit and receive framers and overhead processors; (b) a segmentation and reassembly interface coupled to said physical layer interface having (i) transmit and receive ATM and adaptation layer processors coupled to respective ones of said transmit and receive ATM cell processors; and (ii) a transmit ATM Traffic Shaper coupled to said Transmit ATM and Adaptation Layer Processor; and (c) means for coupling said segmentation and reassembly interface to a PCI bus wherein said segmentation and reassembly interface and said physical layer interface are combined on a monolithic substrate so as to avoid the need for external connection context memory and to eliminate interfaces so as to reduce the number of chip pins.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
161 words
An ATM network interface, comprising: (a) a physical layer interface having (i) transmit and receive line interfaces; (ii) transmit and receive framers and overhead processors coupled to respective ones of said transmit and receive line interfaces; and (iii) transmit and receive cell processors coupled to respective ones of said transmit and receive framers and overhead processors; (b) a segmentation and reassembly interface coupled to said physical layer interface having (i) transmit and receive ATM and adaptation layer processors coupled to respective ones of said transmit and receive ATM cell processors; and (ii) a transmit ATM Traffic Shaper coupled to said Transmit ATM and Adaptation Layer Processor; and (c) means for coupling said segmentation and reassembly interface to a PCI bus wherein said segmentation and reassembly interface and said physical layer interface are combined on a monolithic substrate so as to avoid the need for external connection context memory and to eliminate interfaces so as to reduce the number of chip pins.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
43 words
An ATM network interface according to claim 1, including a transmit multipurpose port coupled to an input of said transmit ATM and Adaptation Layer Processor to allow insertion of cells into a cell stream emanating from said transmit ATM and Adaptation Layer Processor.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
44 words
An ATM network interface according to claim 1 or 2, including an a receive multipurpose port coupled to an output of said receive ATM and Adaptation Layer Processor to allow cell extraction of cells copied by said receive ATM and Adaptation Layer Cell processor.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
62 words
An ATM network interface according to claim 1, including a transmit multipurpose port coupled to an input of said transmit ATM and Adaptation Layer Processor to allow insertion of cells into a cell stream emanating from said transmit ATM and Adaptation Layer Processor and a receive multipurpose port coupled to said receive ATM and Adaptation Layer Processor to allow cell extraction therefrom.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
33 words
An ATM network interface according to claim 1, wherein a receive multipurpose port is coupled to an input of said Receive ATM & Adaptation Layer Processor when in an Utopia or SCI-PHY coupling.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
33 words
An ATM network interface according to claim 1, wherein a transmit multipurpose port is coupled to an output of said transmit ATM & Adaptation Layer Processor when in a Utopia or SCI-PHY coupling.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
28 words
An ATM network interface according to claim 1, wherein said transmit and receive framer and overhead processors each include section, line and path overhead processors coupled in series.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
22 words
An ATM network interface according to claim 1, wherein said Transmit ATM Traffic Shaper includes an ATM variable bit rate cell scheduler.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
30 words
An ATM network interface according to claim 1, wherein said coupling means is a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) controller coupled to said transmit and receive ATM and Adaptation Layer Processors.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
22 words
An ATM network interface according to claim 1, wherein said coupling means further includes a direct memory access controller with scatter/gather capabilities.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
40 words
An ATM network interface according to claim 10, wherein payloads of packets under reassembly are burst written into memory of a PCI Host without alerting the PCI Host until a complete packet has been reassembled thereby minimizing PCI Host interaction.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
16 words
An ATM network interface according to claim 1, including a variable bit rate (VBR) cell scheduler.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
42 words
An ATM network interface according to claim 12, wherein said VBR cell scheduler includes a Transmit ATM Traffic Shaper which provides peak rate enforcement using peak rate queues and average cell rate enforcement using peak rate queues coupled with token bucket averaging.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
19 words
An ATM network interface according to claim 1, including a microprocessor interface for coupling to an external local microprocessor.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim
70 words
An ATM network interface according to claim 12, including a mailbox coupled to said external local microprocessor interface having two mailbox buffers with associated semaphores, one of said buffers for PCI Host to microprocessor communication and the other for microprocessor to PCI Host communication wherein registers in said ATM network interface under control of said external local microprocessor can be accessed by the PCI Host only through said mailbox buffers.