Patent ID: 7519975

Claim:
A network element for routing traffic between networks, compnsing: a first line card coupled to a first network; a second line card coupled to a second network different than the first network; a control card coupled to the first line card and the second line card for routing network traffic between the first and second networks via the first line card and the second line card, the control card including a plurality of processors including a first processor and a second processor, a memory including a common exception handling vector address space shared by the plurality of processors, and a plurality of exception handling vector address spaces each associated with each of the plurality of processors, including a first exception and a second exception handling vector address spaces associated with the first and second processors respectively, a memory controller coupled to the memory and the plurality of processors, wherein the first processor is to execute a first operating system, wherein the first operating system is a real-time operating system to handle routing network traffic, and wherein the second processor is to execute a second operating system and to execute one or more instructions in the common exception handling vector address space upon receipt of an exception, wherein the second operating system is a non-real-time operating system to handle at least one of provisioning and configuration of the network element wherein the one or more instructions cause the second processor to modify based on an identification of the second processor an execution flow of the exception to execute an interrupt handler located within a respective dedicated interrupt handling vector address spaces associated with the second processor.