Patent ID: 9015350
Filing Date: 2015-04-21
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A shared network interface controller (NIC) to allow a plurality of computer servers running multiple operating system domains to interface to an Ethernet network, the controller comprising: a bus interface to couple the controller to a packet based load-store serial link, said load-store serial link coupling each of the plurality of computer servers to the controller such that the controller is in a load-store domain of each of the computer servers; server identification logic, coupled to said bus interface, including a plurality of registers used for identifying packets received by said bus interface with ones of the plurality of computer servers; buffering logic, coupled to said server identification logic, to store said packets received by said bus interface, along with tags which associate said packets with ones of the plurality of computer servers; association logic, coupled to said buffering logic, for determining MAC addresses for said packets utilizing said tags; and transmit/receive logic, coupled to the Ethernet network, and to said association logic, for transmitting said packets to the Ethernet network, and for receiving packets from said Ethernet network; wherein by associating packets with ones of the plurality of computer servers, and buffering the packets between the plurality of computer servers and the Ethernet network, the shared network interface controller provides an Ethernet interface for all of the plurality of computer servers via said packet based load-store serial link, wherein said server identification logic including the plurality of registers comprises respective control status registers for each of the operating system domains, the control status registers of each operating system domain being addressable by the respective operating system domain.