Method and apparatus for moving data packets between networks while minimizing CPU intervention using a multi-bus architecture having DMA bus

摘要

The invention provides a data processing system comprising: a CPU; a system memory; a plurality of network interfaces; a CPU bus connected to the system memory and to each of the network interface for initialization and control of the network interfaces by the CPU; an individual DMA bus connected to each of corresponding network interfaces and to the system memory; each of the network interfaces is connectable to an external network, whereby data can be transferred by the data processing system from one network to another using system memory.