Patent Document ID: 5408646
Application ID: 07946203
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A torus switching network comprising: a plurality of bufferless and clockless switching apparatuses, said switching apparatuses each including a plurality of duplex ports, each of said duplex ports including a switch input port and a switch output port, said switching apparatuses each having one of its duplex ports coupled to one of a plurality of network nodes and a remainder of its duplex ports each coupled to a duplex port of another of said switching apparatuses, each of said network nodes comprising means for receiving a data message from a coupled switching apparatus and means for sending a data message to the coupled switching apparatus, said data message to the coupled switching apparatus including a path connection request; said switching apparatuses each further including: connection means for establishing a connection between any pair of the network nodes in response to said path connection request received at a switching apparatus coupled to one of said pair of the network nodes, said connection for transmitting a data message from said one of said pair of the network nodes to the ,other of said pair of the network nodes, said connection means including asynchronous connection means for establishing asynchronously a plurality of simultaneously active connections between each of a plurality of pairs of the network nodes in response to a plurality of path connection requests received separately or simultaneously at said switching apparatuses, said simultaneously active connections each for transmitting a data message from one network node of each of said plurality of pairs to the other network node of said each of said plurality of pairs.