Patent ID: 6931002

Claim:
A switch to switch time division multiplexed (TDM) data and packet data from input ports to output ports, comprising: a plurality of input ports to receive data, wherein each data comprises either TDM data or packet data; a plurality of output ports to transmit switched data; a single shared memory coupling said input ports to said output ports, said single shared memory to receive sequentially all TDM data and all packet data received from said input ports, said single shared memory to store both TDM data and packet data, said single shared memory to switch all sequentially received TDM data and packet data received from respective input ports to respective output ports, and wherein switching of any received TDM data is based on input time slots of said TDM data; a time slot interchange controller coupled to said single shared memory to select addresses in said single shared memory to store TDM data, said time slot interchange controller to select an address of said single shared memory for a TDM data based on a time slot of a frame in which said switch received the TDM data, wherein said time slot interchange controller selects a same address for said single shared memory each time TDM data is received in a respective time slot of a respective frame; and a packet switch controller coupled to said single shared memory to select addresses in said single shared memory to store packet data, said packet switch controller to select an address of said single shared memory for a packet data based on routing data embedded in the packet data and based on the input port which received the packet data.