Patent ID: 7031305

Claim:
A network switch comprising: a plurality of ports configured for transferring data packets; and an external memory interface configured for transferring the data packets between the network switch and an external memory, the external memory interface including a scheduler for selectively assigning memory access slots to ports for access to the external memory, wherein selectively assigning memory access slots by the scheduler is based on respective programmable information entries, the external memory interface includes an assignment table memory for storing the respective programmable information entries, the programmable information entries are stored in the assignment table memory by an external controller, each programmable information entry includes a port operation code, and the scheduler sets the operation of each of the ports based on the port operation code, and the port operation code includes one of a read bit and a write bit and the scheduler selectively assigns each of the memory access slots as one of a read slot and a write slot, based on the corresponding port operation code.