Patent ID: 7230953

Claim:
A system for managing communication in a network line card, the system comprising: at least two UTOPIA bus controllers, each UTOPIA bus controller operable to control a particular one of a plurality of UTOPIA buses; at least two sets of UTOPIA physical devices associated with respective ones of the UTOPIA bus controllers, each set coupled to a respective one of the UTOPIA buses, and each set addressed by one and only one of the at least two UTOPIA bus controllers; a multiplexer coupled to the UTOPIA bus controllers, the multiplexer operable to perform time division multiplexing utilizing a predetermined number of equal time slots, each of the UTOPIA buses controlled by one and only one of the at least two UTOPIA bus controllers during each time slot; and a same pin coupling each of the UTOPIA buses to the respective UTOPIA bus controllers through the multiplexer.