Patent ID: 7606253

Claim:
In a computer system having a data communications architecture comprising serializers and deserializers (SERDES), a method to communicate small packets using retry buffers comprising: establishing a communications channel between a plurality of serializer/deserializer pairs for the communication of small packets including small data packets and small header packets in both directions across the channel; storing copies of the small packets in a link level retry buffer for communication across the communications channel; determining an address for each stored small packet, wherein the address matches an entry address where the small packet is stored in the link level retry buffer; transferring the small packets across the communications channel; communicating the address of one of the received small packets from a receiving end of the communications channel as acknowledgement of a successful transfer of the small packet; and releasing the link level retry buffer entry having the communicated small packet address from the link level retry buffer for use by a subsequent small packet, wherein the address acknowledging the successful transfer of the received small packet is communicated as part of a header small packet being transferred in the opposite direction, and wherein the address is the address of the small packet most recently successfully received by the receiving end of the communications channel, further comprising releasing the link level retry buffer entries for small packets successfully received prior to the most recently successfully received small packet for use by subsequent small packets.