Patent ID: 6920142

Claim:
An apparatus for sending data to an ATM network and receiving data from the ATM network comprising: (a) a bus interface for interfacing with a bus supporting communication between a host, a storage device and the apparatus; (b) an ATM interface for interfacing with the ATM network; (c) a transmission unit for transmitting outgoing data from the bus interface to the ATM interface, the transmission unit including (1) a first RAM interface for interfacing with RAM being used as a buffer for buffering the outgoing data from the bus interface, (2) means for segmenting the outgoing data from the buffer into outgoing ATM cells, and (3) a traffic shaper, for controlling traffic of the outgoing ATM cells to the ATM interface in cooperation with the means for segmenting; and (d) a reception unit for transmitting incoming data from the ATM interface to the bus interface, the reception unit including (1) means for performing VPI/VCI filtering of incoming ATM cells, (2) means for reassembling the incoming data using payload of the incoming ATM cells, and (3) a second RAM interface for interfacing RAM being used as a buffer for buffering the incoming data the means for reassembling, means for selecting a section to be searched according to the portion of a VPI/VCI of a received ATM cell; and means for performing a search over the selected section to find an entry corresponding to the VPI/VCI of the received ATM cell and outputting an internal ID corresponding to the found entry.