| 摘要 |
A generic network device includes a serial line switching apparatus for performing either parallel or serial communications amongst multiple nodes over switching networks. One aspect shows adaptation of standard and proprietary serial interfaces using either optical or electrical transmission media to interface to the parallel switch. Converted serial data is routed to the selected destination through the parallel switch network, where it is received and converted back into a serial optical or electrical interface/protocol. A parallel electrical switch can efficiently handle optical or electrical serial data and utilize information via wireless gateways to provide the features required for parallel processing and "farm" approaches, such as low latency, high bandwidth, scalability, fault tolerance, and high reliability. In addition, flexibility is provided which permitting the switching adapter to be personalized to support any one of a number of standard and proprietary serial protocols. A personalization PROM specifies the particular serial protocol that each individual adapter is to support. The parallel switching network becomes a flexible media that interconnects and allows different serial protocols to communicate with each other; i.e., any number of different serial protocols can interface with the same parallel switch network. However, a node is not restricted to communicating only with other nodes using the same protocol; it can communicate with any of the other nodes regardless of the serial protocol they use. The switch enables generic networks with heterogeneous and/or homologous nodes as a computer system.
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