Patent ID: 7664110

Claim:
An apparatus for use with one or more external networks having links and devices, the apparatus including: at least one network module having one or more physical network interfaces adapted to couple with the links of the external networks; at least one processor-memory module adapted to run software processes and provide programmable registers for each of a plurality of logical network interfaces; a multi-ported switching fabric, each module being adapted to couple to a respective port of the switching fabric at a respective fabric address; wherein the network interfaces are adapted to selectively exchange frames among the links and the software processes; wherein for each frame received by the network interfaces of each module, the module is adapted to use a destination address of the frame to search a repository of forwarding information and to present the frame to the switch fabric encapsulated with a search-result-provided destination fabric address; and wherein each processor-memory module has a processor-memory portion and an input-output portion, each processor-memory portion providing circuitry in support of the running of the software processes, the input-output portion providing the coupling to the switching fabric for the processor-memory module via one or more virtual input-output controllers, each virtual input-output controller providing circuitry in support of the programmable registers of the logical network interfaces.