Patent ID: 7382788

Claim:
An apparatus to bridge network protocols, comprising: a first network interface to receive a data frame having a source protocol; a memory coupled to said first network interface; a processor coupled to the memory; and, a circuit coupled to said first network interface and said memory, said circuit being configured to, store the data frame in said memory, and notify the processor of said data frame once a programmable number of bytes of the data frame have been stored, said processor, prior to the first network interface receiving the entire data frame, during said storing of the data frame, and in response to said notifying, to begin reading said data frame from said memory, translate said first protocol to a destination protocol, transmit said data frame to a second network interface in accordance with the destination protocol; wherein said processor, prior to transmitting said data frame to a second network interface, is further to, begin writing a translated data frame having said destination protocol to a second circuit coupled to the second network interface, and notify said second circuit to transmit said translated data frame over the second network interface, second circuit, in response thereto, to begin transmitting said translated data frame while said data frame is still being received on said first network interface.