Patent ID: 7107359
Filing Date: 2006-09-12
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A host-fabric adapter installed at a host system for connecting to a switched fabric of a data network, comprising: a Micro-Engine (ME) arranged to establish connections and support data transfers via said switched fabric; a serial interface arranged to receive and transmit data packets from said switched fabric for data transfers; a host interface arranged to receive and transmit host data transfer requests, in the form of descriptors, from said host system for data transfers; a first-in/first-out (FIFO) interface arranged to receive and transmit data packets to/from said switched fabric via said serial interface, and incorporated therein a Receiver Header Hardware Assist (HWA) Mechanism configured to check header information of incoming data packets host descriptors for header errors so as to offload said Micro-Engine (ME) from having to check for said header errors, wherein said Receiver Header Hardware Assist (HWA) mechanism comprises: wherein said header checks and comparisons include (1) Version Compare which is a comparison of the context version and the packet version; (2) Priority Compare which is a comparison of the context priority and the packet priority; (3) Source Address Compare which is a comparison of the context destination address and the source address; (4) Source Work Queue Compare which is a comparison of the context destination work queue (WQ) and the source work queue (WQ) number; (5) Port Compare which is a comparison of the context port value and the port the packet was received on; (6) Channel Configuration Check which is a comparison of the OpCode and the context channel configuration type; (7) OpCode Consistency Check which is a comparison of the OpCode with context information; (8) Length Consistency Check which is a comparison of the OpCode with the Length to ensure the length is in the acceptable range for that OpCode; (9) Read Permission Check which is a comparison of the OpCode with the context read permission bit; (10) Write Permission Check which is a comparison of the OpCode with the context write permission bit; (11) Cell Sequence Number Check (CSN) which is a comparison of the received CSN and the context expected CSN; and (12) Packet Sequence Number (PSN) Check which is a comparison of the received PSN with the context expected PSN based to find the relative position of the PSN.