Bridges in the 7600 Card
12-11
Figure 12-2
Bridges in the 7600 Card
The following figure shows data-direct VCCs configured between two
7600 cards:
Figure 12-3
Virtual Circuit Connections
Cell Switching in the
Bridge
In fact, both Ethernet and ATM switching in the bridge are combined in a
single ASIC called
ZipChip
. Using a technique called
cell switching
, all
data is converted to standard sized cells. The
ZipChip
’s local memory is
optimized for storing these data cells. The data in the memory is either
converted to Ethernet frames when transmitted on the Ethernet port or
to ATM/LAN Emulation frames when transmitted on a VCC. The cell data
need never be copied as it is merely converted to the appropriate format
by the
ZipChip
on its way in and out of memory.
abtthgde.book Page 11 Tuesday, June 23, 1998 10:29 AM
