Patent ID: 7802148

Claim:
A network device for correcting corrupted memory locations, the network device comprising: a memory management unit with a plurality of free pointers, each of which points to a free memory location within a second memory; a plurality of cell locations for storing information within the second memory, each of the plurality of cell locations comprising a pointer-storage field for storing a pointer to another cell location of the plurality of cell locations, to thereby link multiple cells of a multiple cell packet stored within the second memory, wherein the memory management unit is configured to retrieve a first cell value from a first cell location of the plurality of cell locations, determine a first pointer from a corresponding first pointer-storage field of the first cell location to a designated cell location, determine, based on the first cell value, that the first pointer is incorrectly associated with the designated cell location, inspect, in response to the determination that the first pointer is incorrectly associated with the designated cell location, remaining pointer-storage fields to determine a second cell location having a second cell value and a second pointer to the designated cell location within a corresponding second pointer-storage field, and drop information stored in the first cell location and in the second cell location.