Information switching

• Main Authors: Stephan Diestelhorst, Syed Ali Raza Jafri
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 01.03.2017
• Subjects: CALCULATING; COMPUTING; COUNTING; ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE; ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING; ELECTRICITY; PHYSICS; TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHICCOMMUNICATION

Information switching communicates information units such as packets or flits that are communicated between input and output means such as ports or circuits in successive transmission cycles, each input sending a transmission request to at least one output in dependence upon both a transmission queue and hint data received in respect of a current cycle, and each output selecting an input to grant the request of in a current cycle and providing hint data indicating a provisional selection of an input at a next cycle in response to requests received. When hint data has been provided to an input, a request may be sent only to the providing output. When hint data has been provided by two or more outputs, a request may be sent to only to one output based on a selection algorithm such as a round robin algorithm dependent upon transmission priority of units in the queues. An input may be provisionally selected according to a random or pseudo-random selection. The information switch may carry information between nodes on a network which may be fabricated on a network-on-a-chip device.