Patent ID: 6772371
Filing Date: 2004-08-03
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
Apparatus comprising:a protocol engine within a switching node of a data transmission network, said protocol engine including a plurality of processing units and a control unit for updating a freeze register utilizing guided write cells delivered to said control unit; a freeze register having a plurality of freeze bits, each of said freeze bits being individually associated with one of said plurality of processing units, and wherein in response to setting a freeze bit, resources and settings of a processing unit associated with said set freeze bit are prevented from being changed by said processing unit; and a number shot register associated with each of said freeze bits, wherein a set freeze bit for a processing unit is overridden in response to a non-zero value in said shot register such that a process implemented by said processing unit s enabled even if said associated freeze bit is set to 1, and wherein said number shot register value is decremented each time said process is executed.