Patent ID: 8045472
Filing Date: 2011-10-25
Classification: G06F,H04L

Abstract:
1. An apparatus comprising: a receiver comprising a credit management unit configured to manage flow control credits for an interface to which the receiver is coupled during use, wherein each packet received on the interface comprises a packet header and optionally packet data, and wherein the packet data is measured in terms of data credits in the flow control credits dependent on a size of the packet data, wherein each data credit represents a fixed number of data bytes; and a buffer memory coupled to the receiver and configured to store packet headers and packet data corresponding to packets that are received on the interface by the receiver, wherein the buffer memory is allocable by the receiver in buffer units which are N times the size of the data credit, wherein N is an integer greater than one; and wherein a total number of data credits is equal to N times a number of buffer units in the buffer memory that are available to store packet data, and wherein the credit management unit is configured to reserve a plurality of the total data credits based on a maximum number of data credits that are unusable if packet data does not fill a buffer unit and further based on a number of packets that are permitted to be in flight concurrently, and wherein the credit management unit is configured to free one or more data credits in response to receiving packet data for a given packet that incurs fewer than the maximum number of unusable data credits, wherein the credit management unit is configured to free the one or more data credits prior to the given packet being consumed.