Patent ID: 8019832

Claim:
A network core access system for accessing individual functional cores of a system-on-chip, comprising: a network interface core switchable between: a medium access control (MAC) IP connection to an embedded processor that is configured to implement other layers of the IP protocol stack, and an IP core access connection; one or more functional cores, accessible whether directly, by the said IP core access connection to the network interface core, whether through other functional cores, by further IP core access connections; and a network comprising said MAC IP connection and said IP core access connections; wherein the network interface core further comprises a direct connection to the core or external chip responsible for implementing the physical layer of the protocol; and wherein all said connections are parallel, wherein said network is a tree, recursive and hierarchical, said network interface core (parent core) is connected to said one or more functional cores (child cores), each functional core of an arbitrary level (parent core) is connected to one of the connected functional cores of the next level (child cores), wherein each functional core has only one parent connection; wherein said connections further comprise handshake request and acknowledge signals in each direction, and said functional cores comprise a Child Select Register configured to switch the IP core access connection through a functional core to one of its child cores according to content of said Child Select Register.