Abstract: A programmer creates a computer program in assembly language by use of a first macro to identify an operation to be performed on a variable without knowledge of one or more assembly language instructions required to perform the operation. A macro expander (that may be tightly coupled to an assembler) receives the programmer-specified first macro and its argument(s), uses the variable's class type to identify a macro name of a second macro, and invokes this second macro with the argument(s). The macro expander also expands the second macro to generate appropriate assembler instruction(s) to perform the operation. The assembler instructions are automatically changed by the macro expander in an appropriate manner if any of the just-described attributes is changed, so as to still perform the operation indicated by the programmer-specified first macro. Therefore, the programmer may write a program in the assembly language using a high level language syntax.

Abstract: A programmer creates a computer program in assembly language by use of a first macro to identify an operation to be performed on a variable without knowledge of one or more assembly language instructions required to perform the operation. A macro expander (that may be tightly coupled to an assembler) receives the programmer-specified first macro and its argument(s), uses the variable's class type to identify a macro name of a second macro, and invokes this second macro with the argument(s). The macro expander also expands the second macro to generate appropriate assembler instruction(s) to perform the operation. The assembler instructions are automatically changed by the macro expander in an appropriate manner if any of the just-described attributes is changed, so as to still perform the operation indicated by the programmer-specified first macro. Therefore, the programmer may write a program in the assembly language using a high level language syntax.

Abstract: An assembler incapable of supporting structures of the type supported in the “C” language receives and processes an assembly language program that contains one or more definitions of structures, structure instantiations and structure uses. Specifically, structure definitions are presented in the form of macro definitions. Moreover, a name to be used to identify the structure is passed as a parameter to the macro being defined (also called “structure-definition macro”). Furthermore, one or more members of a structure are presented in the form of arguments to a respective number of one or more macros that are invoked between the beginning and end of the structure-definition macro. During instantiation, variable names are created for each member of the structure, and these names are bound to appropriate addresses of resources. Thereafter, these variable names are used in the assembly language program to access data mapped to the member name.

Abstract: An interconnecting apparatus includes one or more interfaces. Each interface connects to a network. The interconnecting apparatus interconnects the networks attached to the interfaces. The device utilizes distributed autonomous forwarding engines on each interface in that each interface has a forwarding engine corresponding to it. Each forwarding engine only knows the configuration information and how to receive and transmit packets on the one interface to which it corresponds. Each forwarding engine acts independently to process packets, yet each interacts together to collectively provide packet forwarding which is protocol independent, interface independent, and scalable.

Abstract: An object-oriented architecture for network layer routing is provided which distributes function and system behavior into autonomous router objects. By distributing these functionalities into each object, the services and data normally external to the object are imbedded or accessible within the object itself. In another sense, some objects are distributed across the network; e.g., a separate forwarding engine is provided at each network interface. In a preferred embodiment, each object has: (1) common, protocol-independent functions that are shared by all objects of that class; (2) their own configuration information; (3) accessibility through a router resource object for instantiation and control; (4) automatic persistence in NVRAM; (5) remote management capabilities; and (6) text names for navigation of a resource tree as a file system. These capabilities are in every object regardless of the specific protocol or application.