APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR EFFICIENTLY TRANSFERRING ATM CELLS ACROSS A BACKPLANE IN A NETWORK SWITCH

摘要

The present invention is directed to an apparatus and method for efficiently transferring asynchronous transfer mode ATM cells across a backplane in a network switch. The present invention is realized through an electrical apparatus (10) that converts parallel data that is received on parallel data input ports (12) to serial data that is transmitted on serial data output ports (14). The parallel data that is received on each parallel data input port (12) is divided and transmitted from a corresponding pair of serial data output ports (14). The electrical apparatus (10) also converts serial data that is received on serial data input ports (16) to parallel data that is transmitted on parallel data output ports (18). The serial data that is received on a corresponding pair of serial data input ports (16) is combined and transmitted from a parallel data output port (18).