Patent ID: 7606249

Claim:
A system for caching packets to improve utilization of a packet memory, the system comprising: (a) a packet memory having a burst length B, B being an integer defined by a user or by physical limitations of the packet memory to ensure efficient utilization of the packet memory; (b) a plurality of write caches associated with the packet memory for storing packets to be written to the packet memory, each write cache corresponding to an egress queue; (c) a packet classifier for classifying packets to one of the egress queues and writing each packet to the corresponding write cache; and (d) a cache manager for monitoring the size of each of the egress queues and for writing packets from one of the plurality of write caches to the packet memory in response to accumulation of the burst length B packets in the one write cache, and, in response to failing to accumulate the burst length B of packets in any of write caches, continuing to accumulate packets in the write caches on an egress queue basis.