Patent ID: 8341580

Claim:
A routing fabric in an integrated circuit, comprising: a plurality of branches, where each branch comprises at least two consecutive levels of switching networks, wherein the at least two consecutive levels of switching networks of each branch comprises one ancestry switching network of the highest level of switching networks of the at least two consecutive levels of switching networks and a plurality of leaf cells comprising a plurality of descendant switching networks of the lowest level of switching networks of the at least two consecutive levels of switching networks; a routing matrix of the plurality of leaf cells of each branch of the plurality of branches; wherein each of the switching networks of each branch and the routing matrix of the plurality of leaf cells of each branch comprises a respective first plurality of ports and a respective second plurality of ports, wherein each port of the first plurality of ports and the second plurality of ports of each switching network of each branch and the routing matrix of the plurality of leaf cells of each branch comprises a plurality of pins, and wherein, for each respective switching network of each branch, the pins of the first plurality of ports selectively couple to the pins of the second plurality of ports through switches of the respective switching network, and wherein, for each respective routing matrix of each branch, the pins of the first plurality of ports selectively couple to the pins of the second plurality of ports through switches of the respective routing matrix; wherein the pins of a plurality of ports of the first plurality of ports of a first routing matrix of a first branch of the plurality of branches are connected to the pins of a plurality of the second plurality of ports of a plurality of leaf cells of the first branch; and wherein the pins of a plurality of the second plurality of ports of the first routing matrix are directly connected to the pins of the first plurality of ports of each switching network of the at least two levels of switching networks of at least two branches of the plurality of branches.