Patent ID: 7334074

Claim:
A system for transferring data in a multi-channel, point-to-point environment, the system comprising: a plurality of processing chips connected to a bridge bus, the bridge bus having a first clock speed at which it operates; a bridge having a second clock speed at which the bridge operates, the second clock speed being different from the first clock speed, wherein the bridge is connected to the bridge bus and to a system bus, the system bus having a third clock speed at which the system bus operates, the third clock speed being different from the first clock speed; a plurality of buffers coupled to the bridge, wherein each buffer is assigned to a respective processing chip; and a first memory connected to the bridge and having the ability to store cells that are exchanged between the bridge bus and the system bus, wherein each cell includes an address for at least one processing chip, wherein the bridge is has the ability to place a cell destined for a destination processing chip in a respective buffer assigned to the destination processing chip, and wherein the bridge is has the ability to place a cell received from an initiating processing chip in a location assigned to the initiating processing chip in a second memory coupled to the system bus.