Patent ID: 8165111

Claim:
A computing and communication apparatus adapted for interconnection to the Internet, the apparatus comprising: a plurality of circuit cards which use packet frame switched full duplex serial communication for all external communications of the cards including memory and input/output accesses, and a communication fabric providing packet frame switched full duplex serial communication over a backplane via a serial packet frame switching device to the said circuit cards, and the said circuit cards and the said communication fabric are housed in a packaging arrangement such that each card is assigned a globally unique address, and each of the said circuit cards uses the said globally unique source address as a source address of packet frame for said packet frame switched full duplex serial communication of the card; and each of the said circuit cards is communicably interconnected via the said communication fabric serial packet frame switching device, and each of the said circuit cards is communicably interconnected to the Internet via the said serial packet frame switching device, and at least one of the said circuit cards includes a protocol processor which encapsulates the memory and input/output access including instruction access of the circuit card to serial packet frame to provide full duplex serial packet-based communication for the circuit card over the backplane at a speed in excess of one gigabits per second.