A Chipset for Wideband Packet Switches

AT&T has implemented a set of two CMOS VLSI standard cell chips-to perform the major functions of a packet switch with 1.544 Mbps access links. The chips provide rate adaptation of the variable bandwidth stream of variable length packets, HDLC encoding/decoding, LAPD and Circuit Emulation Protocol processing functions, DMA interface to a 68000 microprocessor bus, and special bandwidth management and queueing functions. Switching is performed by a Banyan network fabric, implemented in a separate VLSI chip, with a link bandwidth of 16.384 Mbps.