Patent ID: 6072796
Filing Date: 2000-06-06
Classification: H04M

Abstract:
A network interface module for a time division multiplexed network for transferring data among clients of the network, the network having a system clock signal with a clock rate and period that define bus cycles of the network, each of the bus cycles having a number of time slots for transmitting data over the network, each of the time slots corresponding to one channel of the network, the network interface module comprising:a client interface circuit that interfaces with a client of the network to receive outbound data from the client for distribution over the network and to provide outbound data to the client received from the network;a network interface circuit that: receives inbound data from the network and provides outbound data to the network;a memory, coupled to the client interface circuit and the network interface circuit, having a plurality of memory locations, that stores the inbound data and the outbound data of the network;an indirection table that maps channels of the network to corresponding memory locations within the memory so that data corresponding to a particular channel of the network is stored in a specified memory location; anda memory access circuit configured to support two memory access modes to allow the client, depending on a processing mode of the client, to access the memory in one of a first mode and a second mode, such that in the first mode, locations in the memory are accessed sequentially for both reading and writing, and in the second mode, locations in memory are accessed in a random manner for both reading and writing, based on requests from the client.