Patent ID: 6185214
Filing Date: 2001-02-06
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
A network bridge/router, having plural input and output ports, for analyzing a received data unit and for generating plural code vectors used in the selective processing of said received data unit, said bridge/router comprising:a data unit processor comprisinginput data registers for receiving source and destination address information, protocol identification, and reception error data relevant to said received data unit,port configuration registers for providing control data with respect to each of said plural ports,plural data analysis state machines in communication with said input data registers and said port configuration registers for generating intermediate representations of said received data unit,plural vector generator state machines for generating code vectors used in addressing microcode data unit processing routines, anda memory for storing an enable table associated with each of said code vectors and providing an indication of whether the received data unit is to be forwarded through said bridge/router via bridge/router hardware or via software executed by a bridge/router processing unit,wherein said vector generator state machines execute said microcode data unit processing routines to generate at least one of plural dispatch vectors defining the further processing of said received data unit.