TNet: A Reliable System Area Network

  • Authors:
  • Robert W. Horst

  • Affiliations:
  • -

  • Venue:
  • IEEE Micro
  • Year:
  • 1995

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Abstract

TNet is a new system area network designed to support current and future needs for reliable, efficient communications among processors and peripherals. It is an extensible hardware/software layer that allows very large configurations by logically and physically isolating the processor busses from the I/O busses. TNet is a wormhole-routed, packet-switched, point-to-point, system area network. The first implementation has full-duplex, byte-serial links with electrical interfaces supporting either backplane connections or inter-cabinet cables. Variable length packets contain up to 64-bytes of data per packet. TNet transactions consist of pairs of request-response packets allowing data to either be pushed or pulled across the network. The network is designed to support many simultaneous, low-latency, DMA transfers for both inter-processor communications and I/O.