Patent ID: 7006498

Claim:
A data transmission system, comprising: a crossbar switch; a plurality of network adapters coupled for communication therebetween by said crossbar switch, wherein each of said plurality of network adapters includes: a serial communication controller including: means for converting data frames into a bit stream of serial data before transmitting said serial data to said crossbar switch; and means for converting a bit stream of serial data received from said crossbar switch into data frames of parallel bytes before transmitting said data frames toward an attached network; and control logic for generating a request signal (REQ) to said crossbar switch when said adapter requests transfer of data frames to another network adapter, wherein said request signal (REQ) includes first data bytes defining a destination address of data to be transmitted and second data bytes representing a connection time defined by a number of slots of said crossbar switch in which the data are to be transmitted, wherein: said control logic comprises first control logic that generates said request signal (REQ) during a last time slot of a previous transmission via said crossbar switch; said crossbar switch includes second control logic for generating a grant signal (GNT) to a network adapter during said last time slot of said previous transmission; and said first control logic, responsive to receiving said grant signal (GNT), transmits data for said number of slots specified by said request signal (REQ) immediately after said last time slot of said previous transmission.