Patent ID: 7089326

Claim:
A network interface device for use with a central processing unit (CPU) of a host computer, the network interface device comprising: protocol processing hardware that receives a network packet, validates a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) checksum of the packet and analyzes media-access control (MAC), Internet Protocol (IP) and TCP headers of the packet to determine source and destination MAC addresses, IP addresses and TCP ports for the packet; and a processor accessing interface memory that receives a TCP control block from the host, the TCP control block being at least in part identified by an IP address and TCP port of the host and an IP address and TCP port of a remote host, the memory storing a state of the TCP control block, the IP address and TCP port of the host, the IP address and TCP port of the remote host and source and destination MAC addresses for the network interface device, the processor adapted to update the state of the TCP control block when the IP addresses and TCP ports of the validated packet match the IP addresses and TCP ports of the TCP control block.