Memory organization in a switching device

DETAILED DESCRIPTION In general, in one aspect, the invention provides a router for switching data packets from a source to a destination in a network.
The router includes an input port for receiving a data packet and a physically distributed memory including two or more banks.
Each memory bank includes a global data area for storing portions of the data packet.
The router further includes an input switch for streaming across the memory banks uniform portions of the data packet, a controller for determining packet routing through the router, an output switch for extracting in order the portions of packet data stored in the global data area of each memory bank and forwarding the packet data to an appropriate output port and an output port for transferring the data packet to the destination.
In another aspect the invention provides a router for switching data packets from a source to a destination in a network in which the router includes a distributed memory.
The distributed memory includes two or more memory banks.
Each memory bank is used for storing uniform portions of a data packet received from a source and linking information for each data packet to allow for the extraction of the uniform portions of a data packet from distributed locations in memory in proper order after a routing determination has been made by the router.
Aspects of the invention include numerous features.
The distributed memory includes an output queue for storing a notification indicative of the routing of the data packet through the router.
The notification includes linking information for retrieving at least a first cell of the data packet from the distributed memory.
The notification includes linking information for the first 5 cells of the data packet.
The notification includes an address for an indirect cell.
The indirect cell is stored in the distributed memory and includes linking information for extracting cells in order from the distributed memory.
Each memory bank includes a global data area for storing portions of data packets and a notification area for storing notifications