Abstract: A method and system for mapping a node topology is disclosed. The node topology is based on a computer system comprised of a high performance acyclic serial bus and a plurality of nodes coupled to the acyclic serial bus. Each node further includes an identification packet. The mapping topology establishes a root node based upon information found in each identification packet and establishes at least one branch node among the nodes based on the information. Next, the topology mapping method selects a first available branch node among the available branch nodes based on the information. The system then identifies any of the nodes that are child nodes to the first available branch node. Upon identifying all child nodes of the branch node, the system selects a next available branch node based upon the information. The processing continues until the root node is processed as a branch node.

Abstract: A method and system for determining the maximum number of cable segments between all possible node to node paths on a high performance serial bus. The method for determining the maximum cable hops on the serial bus, which is acyclic and based upon the IEEE 1994 standard, consists of traversing a direct path between two nodes via the parent links. Further, the number of traversed paths is reduced from all possible node-to-node paths to only leaf-to-leaf node paths and leaf-to-root node paths for efficiently identifying the maximum number of cable segments between any two nodes within the serial bus.

Abstract: In a tree topology network, a method for determining the maximum transfer speed for data packets transmitted over a high performance acyclic serial bus is disclosed. The acyclic serial bus, patterned along the lines of the IEEE 1394 standard, is capable of operating at multiple transmission rates, depending upon the transmission rate of any particular node. Once the transfer speeds have been determined by finding transmission rates to and from an ancestor node, an efficient storage technique for representing the transfer speeds is also disclosed. The method supports packet speed selection for all types of data packets allowed by the IEEE standard, such as, for example, asynchronous, isochronous and broadcast packets.