Patent ID: 7693167

Claim:
An interface controller for a first node for connecting to a nodal network, the first node having a routing table identifying a second node in the nodal network, the first node following a communications protocol represented as an abstract model comprising a plurality of layers including a physical layer for converting data between a signal transmitted across the nodal network and a bitwise representation of the signal within the first node, and a data link layer for arranging the bits of the signal into logical data, wherein the plurality of layers includes a network layer for performing network routing of the signal between the first node and the second node in the nodal network, the interface controller comprising: a physical layer interface for implementing the physical layer; and a first processing core coupled with the physical layer interface, the processing core implementing functionality of the data link layer, wherein the first processing core implements the data link layer functionality utilizing microoperations in the first processing core, and the interface controller further comprises a second processing core for implementing network routing functions of the network layer, the second processing core having a core speed and accessing a RAM subsystem, a hardware address counter, and a hardware data comparator allowing the second processing core to search the routing table for a network address for the second node linearly at the core speed.