Abstract: Continuing to integrate more aggregate bandwidth and higher radix into switch devices is an economic imperative because it creates value both for the supplier and customer in large data center environments which are an increasingly important part of the marketplace. While new silicon processes continue to shrink transistor and other chip feature dimensions, process technology cannot be relied upon as a key driver of power reduction. Transitioning from 28 nm to 16 nm is a special case where FinFET provides additional power scaling, but subsequent FinFET nodes are not expected to deliver as substantial of power reductions to meet the desired increases in integration. The disclosed switch architecture attacks the power consumption problem by controlling the rate at which power-consuming activities occur.

Abstract: A network switch including a set of communication ports is provided. The communication ports may have an allocated prebuffer to store data during packet switching operations. The network switch may further include a calendar associated with the set of communication ports that provides bandwidth configuration for the set of communication ports. The network switch may further include a secondary calendar that may be dynamically setup. The secondary calendar may provide an alternative bandwidth configuration strategy for the set of communication ports. The switch includes circuitry that may increase the prebuffer size and upon the successful increase of the prebuffer size reconfigure the set of communication ports from the original calendar to the secondary calendar, without a reboot. The circuitry may reset the prebuffer size after reconfiguration is complete and the switch may continue operation according to the reconfigured settings.

Abstract: Continuing to integrate more aggregate bandwidth and higher radix into switch devices is an economic imperative because it creates value both for the supplier and customer in large data center environments which are an increasingly important part of the marketplace. While new silicon processes continue to shrink transistor and other chip feature dimensions, process technology cannot be relied upon as a key driver of power reduction. Transitioning from 28 nm to 16 nm is a special case where FinFET provides additional power scaling, but subsequent FinFET nodes are not expected to deliver as substantial of power reductions to meet the desired increases in integration. The disclosed switch architecture attacks the power consumption problem by controlling the rate at which power-consuming activities occur.

Abstract: A network switch including a set of communication ports is provided. The communication ports may have an allocated prebuffer to store data during packet switching operations. The network switch may further include a calendar associated with the set of communication ports that provides bandwidth configuration for the set of communication ports. The network switch may further include a secondary calendar that may be dynamically setup. The secondary calendar may provide an alternative bandwidth configuration strategy for the set of communication ports. The switch includes circuitry that may increase the prebuffer size and upon the successful increase of the prebuffer size reconfigure the set of communication ports from the original calendar to the secondary calendar, without a reboot. The circuitry may reset the prebuffer size after reconfiguration is complete and the switch may continue operation according to the reconfigured settings.

Abstract: Aspects of port empty transition scheduling are described herein. In one embodiment, when one or more cells are added to a queue in a network communications device, an enqueue indicator is generated. The enqueue indicator identifies a number of cells added to the queue. With reference to the enqueue indicator, a queue scheduler maintains a count of cells enqueued for communication and issues a port pick credit for a port of the network communications device. A port scheduler schedules a pick for communicating over the port with reference to the port pick credit and forwards the pick to the queue scheduler. In turn, the queue scheduler forwards a queue pick to the queue, and at least one of the cells is forwarded to dequeue logic. According to aspects of the embodiments described herein, empty port scheduling inefficiencies may be avoided and network throughput increased.

Abstract: Aspects of port empty transition scheduling are described herein. In one embodiment, when one or more cells are added to a queue in a network communications device, an enqueue indicator is generated. The enqueue indicator identifies a number of cells added to the queue. With reference to the enqueue indicator, a queue scheduler maintains a count of cells enqueued for communication and issues a port pick credit for a port of the network communications device. A port scheduler schedules a pick for communicating over the port with reference to the port pick credit and forwards the pick to the queue scheduler. In turn, the queue scheduler forwards a queue pick to the queue, and at least one of the cells is forwarded to dequeue logic. According to aspects of the embodiments described herein, empty port scheduling inefficiencies may be avoided and network throughput increased.