Patent ID: 7881321

Claim:
A node controller in a computer system, comprising: a datapath crossbar operable to pass message frames in a dedicated format; a plurality of output queues, each output queue associated with a local source, a particular output queue operable to buffer outgoing message frames from the local source for transfer to the datapath crossbar, the particular output queue operable to rate match between a bandwidth of the datapath crossbar and a bandwidth of the local source, the particular output queue operable to provide synchronization between the datapath crossbar and the local source, the particular output queue having a unit interface customized to a unique requirement of the associated local source, the particular output queue having a datapath interface that is uniform with the datapath crossbar for all output queues; a memory/directory interface unit operable to convert data to and from a format of a memory device coupled thereto and the dedicated format of the datapath crossbar; an input/output interface unit operable to convert data to and from a format of a device coupled thereto and the dedicated format of the datapath crossbar; a network interface unit operable to convert data to and from a network format and the dedicated format of the datapath crossbar; a processing device interface unit operable to convert data to and from a format of a processing device coupled thereto and the dedicated format of the datapath crossbar; wherein the output queues associated with the memory/directory interface unit include separate header and data buffers.