Patent ID: 6567859
Filing Date: 2003-05-20
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
A circuit for performing a transmission control protocol (TCP) segmentation on data of a host system to be transferred over a network, said circuit comprising:a segmentation circuit coupled to receive a first descriptor from said host system which corresponds to said data stored within a host memory to be transferred over said network, as part of said transmission control protocol segmentation said segmentation circuit uses said first descriptor to generate a second descriptor that describes a segment of said data stored within said host memory and said second descriptor comprises a pointer to reuseable header data stored with said host memory associated with said segment of said data; a data download circuit coupled to receive said second descriptor from said segmentation circuit and coupled to said host memory, said data download circuit utilizes said second descriptor to download said segment of said data from said host memory and said data download circuit utilizes said pointer to download said reuseable header data; a local memory coupled to receive said segment of said data from said data download circuit, said local memory stores said segment of said data; and a medium access control (MAC) circuit coupled to said local memory to retrieve said segment of said data and coupled to transfer said segment of said data over said network.