BANDWIDTH MANAGEMENT WITH CONFIGURABLE PIPELINES IN A HIGH-PERFORMANCE COMPUTING ENVIRONMENT

1 . A method of bandwidth management in a high-performance computing environment, the method comprising;

receiving, by a link manager during link negotiation and initialization, bandwidth capabilities of a link partner;

establishing, by the link manager, a local receive bandwidth for a receive controller of a port in dependence upon the bandwidth capabilities of the link partner and the local port, and

configuring, by the link manager, a pipeline in the receive controller of a port of the switch for processing data according to the receive bandwidth.

2 . The method of claim 1 further comprising processing, by the pipeline of the receive controller, data in dependence according to the established receive bandwidth.

3 . The method of claim 2 wherein processing data through a pipeline of the receive controller in dependence upon the established receive bandwidth further comprises:

receiving data in an error check buffer;

processing data from the error check buffer to a mega port buffer through the pipeline in dependence upon established receive bandwidth.

4 . The method of claim 1 wherein the receive bandwidth value comprises a number of flow control units (flits) per clock cycle.

5 . The method of claim 4 wherein populating the mega port with flits according to the established receive bandwidth further comprise populating the mega port buffer with flits according to packet processing rules.

6 . The method of claim 5 wherein the packet processing rules comprise distance rules.

7 . A switch, the switch comprising:

a plurality of ports including a transmit controller and a receive controller, wherein the receive controller includes an error check buffer, a configurable pipeline, and a mega port buffer;

a switch core; and

a control port comprising a management processor, wherein the management processor comprises a link manager comprising logic configured to establish, during link negotiation and initialization, a receive bandwidth in dependence upon local port configurations and port configurations of a link partner and configure the pipeline to process data according to the receive bandwidth.

8 . The switch of claim 7 wherein the pipeline comprises logic configured to move flits of data from the error check buffer to the mega port buffer according to the receive bandwidth value.

9 . The switch of claim 8 wherein the pipeline is further configured to move flits of data from the error check buffer to the mega port buffer according to packet processing rules.

10 . The switch of claim 9 wherein the packet processing rules comprise distance rules.

11 . A host fabric adapter, the host fabric adapter comprising:

at least one fabric port comprising a management processor, a serializer/deserializer; a receive controller and a transmit controller; wherein the receive controller includes an error check buffer, a pipeline, and a mega port buffer;

wherein the management processor comprises a link manager comprising logic configured to establish, during link negotiation and initialization, a receive bandwidth in dependence upon local port configurations and port configurations of a link partner and configure the pipeline to process data according to the receive bandwidth value.

12 . The host fabric adapter of claim 11 wherein the pipeline comprises logic configured to move flits of data from the error check buffer to the mega port buffer according to the receive bandwidth value.

13 . The host fabric adapter of claim 12 wherein the pipeline is further configured to move flits of data from the error check buffer ( 775 ) to the mega port buffer ( 779 ) in compliance with packet processing distance rules.

14 . A system of bandwidth management in a high-performance computing environment, the system comprising;

means for receiving, during link negotiation and initialization, bandwidth capabilities of a link partner;

means for establishing a local receive bandwidth for a receive controller of a port in dependence upon the bandwidth capabilities of the link partner and the local port, and

means for configuring a pipeline in the receive controller of a port of the switch for processing data according to the receive bandwidth.

15 . The system of claim 14 further comprising means for processing data in dependence according to the established receive bandwidth.

16 . The system of claim 15 wherein means processing data in dependence upon the established receive bandwidth further comprises:

means for receiving data in an error check buffer;

means for processing data from the error check buffer to a mega port buffer through the pipeline in dependence upon established receive bandwidth.

17 . The system of claim 16 wherein the receive bandwidth value comprises a number of flow control units (flits) per clock cycle.

18 . The system of claim 17 wherein means for populating the mega port with flits according to the established receive bandwidth further comprise means for populating the mega port buffer with flits according to packet processing rules.

19 . The system of claim 18 wherein the packet processing rules comprise distance rules.