Patent ID: 7260661
Filing Date: 2007-08-21
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. An apparatus that communicates with an advanced switching (AS) fabric, the apparatus comprising: a transmit engine to generate a request packet for transmission to the AS fabric, and to transmit the request packet to the AS fabric, the transmit engine being configured to associate a first transaction identifier with the request packet; wherein the transmit engine is configured to generate the request packet using a packet descriptor, the transmit engine being configured to retrieve the packet descriptor from one of plural registers that are assigned priority levels and that are accessible by the transmit engine based on the priority levels, at least one of the priority levels corresponding to a number of packet descriptors to retrieve; and a receive engine to receive a reply packet in response to the request packet transmitted to the AS fabric by the transmit engine, the reply packet containing a second transaction identifier, the receive engine being configured to compare the first transaction identifier to the second transaction identifier, wherein, if the first transaction identifier matches the second transaction identifier, the receive engine is configured to store data associated with the reply packet at an address associated with the first transaction identifier, the data being stored in association with the transaction identifier.