A ROUTING ARRANGEMENT

摘要

A crossbar routing arrangement is disclosed for use in a digital system havi ng three or more buses. An associated method is also disclosed. The routing arrangement is configured for transferring a set of data received from any particular one of the buses to any other selected one of the buses and includes a control arrangement associated with each bus for dividing the set of data into at least first and second subsets of data and for adding self- routing signals to each data subset which signals identify the selected bus. A switching arrangement is configured for directing the first and second data subsets in a predetermined way responsive to the self-routing signals. The control arrangement cooperates with the switching arrangement to transfer th e data subsets over physically distinct data transfer paths defined between th e switching arrangement and the control arrangements. In accordance with one feature, the configuration of the routing arrangement provides for linear expansion whereby to service buses having increased width and/or to service an increased number of buses in a cost effective manner while, in either instance, maintaining high data throughput.