NETWORK STATION WITH MULTIPLE NETWORK ADDRESSES

摘要

A network interface control apparatus and a new class of multi-function computer systems for attachments to networks are provided. The memory (78, 79 and 80) in the medium access control device (50) stores a plurality of additional network addresses in addition to the assigned network addresses. The address filtering logic (77) includes circuits responsive to the additional network addresses, such as logic for blocking a particular frame on at least one of the plurality of data channels (73-75 and 81-83) when the source and destination address of a particular frame are found in the additional addresses stored in the memory. The plurality of data channels served by the media access control device may reside on a single physical interface, or in independant physical interfaces as suits the needs of a particular design. A high performance design would include independant buffering and queuing structures (57, 58, 60, 61, 63 and 64) for each of the data channels. An alternative design may include shared buffering and queuing structures for a plurality of functional modules in the connected computer which have side network addresses.