Patent ID: 8539130

Claim:
A method for transmitting data packets between a plurality of client subsystems, the method comprising: receiving a data request from a source client subsystem to transmit a data packet between the source client subsystem and a destination client subsystem; identifying a request type associated with the data request that indicates a priority associated with the data request; identifying a source client type associated with the source client subsystem; based on the request type and the source client type, selecting a first virtual channel included in a crossbar unit for transmitting the data packet between the source client subsystem and the destination client subsystem; and transmitting the data request to the destination client subsystem and the data packet between the source client subsystem and the destination client subsystem via the first virtual channel; wherein the data request is a communication between a peripheral unit external to a parallel processing unit and a local memory system within the parallel processing unit, and the first virtual channel is a separate virtual channel for communications between the peripheral unit and the local memory system.