Patent ID: 6985969

Claim:
A network interface, comprising: a programmable media access control having at least one input configured to receive incoming frame data from a network; and a buffer manager coupled to receive the frame data from the media access control, wherein the media access control is operable in a first state in which it passes the incoming frame data to the buffer manager and in a second state in which it does not assert the incoming frame data to the buffer manager, the media access control is programmable to perform at least one filtering operation on each packet of the incoming frame data to determine whether to accept the packet, the media access control is also programmable to perform at least one additional operation in response to the incoming frame data, and the additional operation is not a filtering operation to determine whether to accept packets of the incoming frame data, wherein performance of the additional operation includes performance of at least one predetermined action in response to at least one predetermined bit pattern in the incoming frame data.