Patent ID: 6457087
Filing Date: 2002-09-24
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
A flow control unit for use with a plurality of processing devices and a memory, the flow control unit comprising:first point-to-point interfaces configured for coupling to first point-to-point connections to the processing devices; second point-to-point interfaces configured for coupling to second point-to-point connections to the memory; first signal paths coupled to the first point-to-point interfaces; second signal paths coupled to the second point-to-point interfaces; node switches coupled to the first signal paths and the second signal paths and configured to couple selected ones of the first signal paths with selected ones of the second signal paths; and a controller coupled to the node switches and configured to control the node switches to couple the selected ones of the first signal paths to the selected ones of the second signal paths to establish selected communication paths for data transfer transactions between individual ones of the processing devices and the memory through the first point-to-point connections, the first point-to-point interfaces, the first signal paths, the node switches, the second signal paths, the second point-to-point interfaces, and the second point-to-point connections.