VARIABLE LENGTH PACKET SWITCHING SYSTEM

摘要

A packet switching system for transmitting variable length packets between system ports (101-n). Each byte of each packet has a special one-bit field for indicating whether the byte is the last byte of a packet. A "1" in this field specifies that the byte is the last byte of a packet and activates port control circuitry that changes the potential on a system control conductor (103) to indicate that the system data bus (109a) is now idle and free for use by other ports (101-n).