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A multi-port communications system is described, which includes hardware based subsystems for performing both physical medium dependent operations and transport convergence operations on a data transmission. A software based subsystem performs other operations as needed. Both types of subsystems are

A multi-port communications system is described, which includes hardware based subsystems for performing both physical medium dependent operations and transport convergence operations on a data transmission. A software based subsystem performs other operations as needed. Both types of subsystems are shareable by the communications ports so as to reduce a total hardware requirement of a communications system. In addition, processing blocks within both subsystems are adapted to be multi-tasking, in that they can perform multiple operations for a receive/transmit task, or even a mixture of receive/transmit tasks. The subsystems are arrangeable in a logical/hybrid pipeline arrangement with a common memory to further maximize the flexibilty and configurability of a communications system.

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What is claimed is: 1. A multi-port communications system comprising: a first subsystem for performing a first set of physical medium dependent operations on a data transmission, the first set of physical medium dependent operations comprising equalization; and a second subsystem for performing a f

What is claimed is: 1. A multi-port communications system comprising: a first subsystem for performing a first set of physical medium dependent operations on a data transmission, the first set of physical medium dependent operations comprising equalization; and a second subsystem for performing a first set of transport convergence operations for said data transmission, the first set of transport convergence operations comprising Reed-Solomon decoding; and a third subsystem for performing a second set of transport convergence operations for said data transmission; and wherein each of said first subsystem, said second subsystem and said third subsystem are usable and shareable by a plurality of communications ports maintaining a plurality of data transmissions in the multi-port communications system. 2. The system of claim 1, wherein said first subsystem, said second subsystem and said third subsystem are configurable so that any of the following operating modes are supportable by the multi-port communications system: (1) one-port ADSL-Transceiver-Unit-Remote (ATU-R), (2) one-port ATU-Central-Office (ATU-C), (3) two-port ATU-R, (4) two-port ATU-C, and (5) one-port ATU-C and one-port ATU-R. 3. The system of claim 1 wherein the system includes N separate ports supporting a discrete multi-tone (DMT) based transmission. 4. The system of claim 3 wherein the system is implemented on a single system-on-chip (SOC). 5. The system of claim 1 wherein computing resources in the system can be allocated to each of said first subsystem, said second subsystem and said third subsystems as required to support a particular data transmission. 6. The system of claim 1 wherein operations for receive tasks and transmit tasks for a plurality of ports in the system are allocated so as to optimize resource usage of said first subsystem, said second subsystem and said third subsystems. 7. The system of claim 1 wherein said second subsystem and said third subsystems are arranged as a single logical hybrid pipeline using a common pipeline clock. 8. The system of claim 7 wherein said common pipeline clock is operated at a rate higher than any sampling rate used by any port in the system during a communication with a remote transceiver. 9. The system of claim 7 wherein processing operations for each port in the system are performed synchronously with respect to all other ports. 10. The system of claim 1 wherein at least one of such ports is a voice over DSL (VoDSL) port. 11. The system of claim 1 wherein said first subsystem is coupled through a time domain multiplexed bus to an analog front end circuit, said time domain multiplexed bus including frames containing both data and embedded control information. 12. A multi-port communications system comprising: a first subsystem for performing a first set of physical medium dependent (PMD) operations, said first subsystem including one or more PMD related integrated circuits, wherein at least one of said PMD related integrated circuits is configured to perform more than one PMD related function; a second subsystem for performing a first set of transport convergence (TC) operations, said second subsystem being coupled to said first subsystem through a bus master, and including one or more TC related integrate circuits, wherein at least one of said TC related integrated circuits is configured to perform more than one TC related function; and a third subsystem for performing a second set of transport convergence operations, said third subsystem being coupled to said first subsystem and said second subsystem through said bus master, and including one or more signal processing cores; and wherein said bus master is adapted to transfer and receive processed data from a shared external memory for exchanging processing results between each of said first subsystem, said second subsystem and said third subsystem; further wherein said first subsystem, said second subsystem and said third subsystem are shared by a plurality of communications ports in the multi-port communications system to support a plurality of separate data transmissions occurring at the same time. 13. The system of claim 12, wherein at least one of said PMD related integrated circuits at least one of said TC related integrated circuits is configured to perform both a receive based operation and a transmit related operation. 14. The system of claim 12, wherein said at least one of said PMD related integrated circuits and said at least one of said TC related integrated circuits perform said more than one PMD related operation and said more than one TC related operation during a single DMT symbol operating cycle. 15. The system of claim 12, wherein the system is implemented on a single system-on-chip (SOC) integrated circuit. 16. The system of claim 12, wherein a common data object structure is utilized for passing data and control information within and between each of said first subsystem, second subsystem and third subsystems. 17. A multi-port communications system comprising: a first subsystem for performing a first set of physical medium dependent (PMD) operations, said first subsystem including one or more PMD related integrated circuits, wherein at least one of said PMD related integrated circuits is configured to perform more than one PMD related function; and a second subsystem for performing a first set of transport convergence (TC) operations, said second subsystem being coupled to said first subsystem through a bus master, and including one or more TC related integrated circuits, wherein at least one of said TC related integrated circuits is configured to perform more than one TC related function; and a third subsystem for performing a second set of transport convergence operations, said third subsystem being coupled to said first subsystem and said second subsystem through said bus master, and including one or more signal processing cores executing software instructions; and wherein said bus master is adapted to transfer and receive processed data from a shared external memory for exchanging processing results between each of said first subsystem, said second subsystem and said third subsystem; a common pipeline clock configured so that said bus master, said second subsystem and said third subsystem are arranged in a logical hybrid pipeline arrangement using said shared external memory; and further wherein said first subsystem, said second subsystem and said third subsystem are shared by a plurality of communications ports in the multi-port communications system so that a plurality of separate data transmissions can be supported at the same tune in the system. 18. The system of claim 17 wherein said common pipeline clock is operated at a rate higher than any rate used by any port in the system during a communication with a remote transceiver. 19. The system of claim 18 wherein processing operations for each port in the system are performed synchronously with respect to all other ports. 20. The system of claim 18, wherein stuffing intervals are inserted into the logical pipeline for each port to accommodate said higher rate, during which stuffing intervals dummy data is exchanged between each of said first subsystem, said second subsystem and said third subsystem. 21. The system of claim 18, wherein stuffing intervals are inserted into the logical pipeline for each port to accommodate said higher rate, during which stuffing intervals control data is exchanged between said second subsystem and said third subsystem. 22. The system of claim 17, wherein each of said second subsystem and said third subsystem include a respective local bus so as to reduce bandwidth requirements of a common transfer bus used by the logical pipeline. 23. The system of claim 17, wherein the logical pipeline uses a dual buffer structure for exchanging said processing results. 24. The system of claim 17, wherein during a complete discrete multi-tone (DMT) symbol operating cycle the logical pipeline handles both receive and transmit operations for said plurality of ports. 25. A multi-port communications system comprising: a first subsystem for performing a first set of physical medium dependent operations; and a second subsystem for performing a first set of transport convergence operations; and a third subsystem for performing a second set of transport convergence operations; and a data object structure for passing data and control information to processing circuits within each of said first subsystem, second subsystem and third subsystems, such that said data object structure is used as a common mechanism for exchanging results of said processing circuits and between said first subsystem, second subsystem and third subsystems; a bus master for coupling said first subsystem, said second subsystem and said third subsystem, and for coordinating transfers of said data object structure between such subsystems; wherein each of said first subsystem, said second subsystem and said third subsystem are shared by a plurality of communications ports in the multi-port communications system, and each port of said plurality of communications ports uses one or more of said data object structures during a data transmission. 26. The multi-port communication system of claim 25, wherein said second subsystem and said third subsystem are interconnected as a logical pipeline using a common logical pipeline clock. 27. The multi-port communication system of claim 26 wherein said second subsystem is hardware based and said third subsystem is software based such that they are interconnected as a logical hybrid pipeline to perform operations for each port in an interleaved sequence of hardware operations and software operations. 28. The multi-port communication system of claim 25 wherein said data object structure is used both as an input and an output mechanism for each processing stage implemented by said first subsystem, said second subsystem and said third subsystem. 29. The multi-port communication system of claim 25, wherein said control information includes information identifying a port associated with said data object structure. 30. The multi-port communication system of claim 28 wherein said control information includes information indicating a communications path associated whether said data object structure, including whether said data object structure is associated with a transmit operation or a receive operation. 31. The multi-port communication system of claim 25 wherein said control information includes information passed on by a first processing stage to a second processing stage, wherein said first processing stage and said second processing stage are separated by more than one other processing stage. 32. A communications system for supporting multi-port communications comprising: a first subsystem for performing a first set of physical medium dependent operations comprising equalization; and said first subsystem further including a data interface for performing transfers of data and control information with an associated codec, wherein said transfers are made with a time domain multiplexed bus using data and embedded control information; a second subsystem for performing a first set of transport convergence operations comprising Reed-Solomon decoding; and a third subsystem for performing a second set of transport convergence operations; and wherein said first subsystem, said second subsystem and said third subsystem are each useable and shareable by more than one communications port in the multi-port communications system to support a plurality of separate data transmissions occurring at the same time. 33. The system of claim 32, wherein said time domain multiplexed bus is n bits wide, where n>=2. 34. The system of claim 32, wherein said transfers are made based on timing provided by both a frame clock and a separate bit clock carried between said data interface and said codec. 35. The system of claim 34, wherein said frame clock and said separate bit clock are programmable to support a required data rate. 36. The system of claim 32, wherein a data rate in the time domain multiplexed bus can be varied by adjusting a number of time slots used for data during a frame clock. 37. A multi-port communications system for processing a data transmission based on discrete multi-tone (DMT) symbols utilizing data objects, the system comprising: a first PMD subsystem for performing a first set of physical medium dependent (PMD) operations on the DMT symbol, said first subsystem including one or more PMD related integrated circuits adapted to process said data objects, wherein at least one of said PMD related integrated circuits is configured to perform more than one PMD related function based on control information passed by said data object structure; and a second TC subsystem for performing a first set of transport convergence (TC) operations, said second subsystem being coupled to said first subsystem through a bus master, and including one or more TC related integrated circuits adapted to process said data objects, wherein at least one of said TC related integrated circuits is configured to perform more than one TC related function based on control information passed by said data objects; a third DSP subsystem coupled to said first subsystem and said second subsystem through said bus master, and for performing a second set of transport convergence operations based on said data objects using one or more digital signal processors (DSP) executing software instructions; and a bus master adapted to exchange one or more data objects between each of aid first subsystem, said second subsystem and said third subsystem through a shared external memory; a common pipeline clock configured so that said bus master, said second subsystem and said third subsystem are arranged in a logical hybrid pipeline arrangement using said shared external memory; and a PMD task scheduler coupling said first subsystem and said bus master and responding to data object structure requests from the PMD subsystem so that said data objects may be exchanged between said one or more PMD related integrated circuits and said TC subsystem and said DSP subsystem through said bus master; a TC task scheduler coupling said second subsystem and said bus master and responding to data object requests from the TC subsystem so that said data objects may be exchanged between said one or more TC related integrated circuits and said first TC subsystem and said DSP subsystem through said bus master; further wherein said first PMD subsystem, said second TC subsystem and said third DSP subsystem are shared by a plurality of communications ports in the multi-port communications system so that a plurality of separate data transmissions can be supported at the same time in the system. 38. The system of claim 37, wherein said first PMD subsystem, said second TC subsystem and said third DSP subsystem perform operations associated with a digital subscriber line (DSL) protocol standard, including for ADSL and/or VDSL and/or SHDSL. 39. The system of claim 37, wherein said common pipeline clock is based on a discrete multi-tone (DMT) symbol rate. 40. The system of claim 37, wherein said common pipeline clock is programmable to control power consumption in the system. 41. A method of operating a multi-port communications system comprising the steps of: performing a first set of physical medium dependent (PMD) operations on a data transmission; and performing a first set of transport convergence operations (TC) for said data transmission; and wherein said first set of PMD operations and said first set of TC operations are implemented entirely with a hardware based logic circuit; performing a second set of TC operations for said data transmission; wherein said second set of TC operations are implemented entirely with a software based general purpose processor; sequencing processing of said data transmission so that for each port in the multi-port communications system, said second set of TC operations are interleaved and overlap in time with said first set of transport convergence operations (TC). 42. The method of claim 41, wherein said hardware based logic circuit and software based general purpose processor are configurable so that any of the following operating modes are supportable by the multi-port communications system: (1) one-port ADSL-Transceiver-Unit-Remote (ATU-R), (2) one-port ATU-Central-Office (ATU-C), (3) two-port ATU-R, (4) two-port ATU-C, and (5) one-port ATU-C and one-port ATU-R. 43. The method of claim 41 wherein the system includes N separate ports supporting a discrete multi-tone (DMT) based transmission. 44. The method of claim 43 wherein the method is implemented on a single system-on-chip (SOC). 45. The method of claim 41 wherein computing resources in the system 1 can be allocated to said hardware based logic circuit and software based general purpose process as required to support a particular data transmission. 46. The method of claim 41 wherein operations for receive tasks and transmit tasks for a plurality of ports in the system are allocated so as to optimize resource usage of said hardware based logic circuit and software based general purpose processor, and to minimize power consumption. 47. The method of claim 41 wherein said hardware based logic circuit and software based general purpose processor are arranged as a single logical hybrid pipeline using a common pipeline clock, such that for a single port, tasks performed by said hardware based logic circuit for a single port are interleaved with tasks performed by said software based general purpose processor. 48. The method of claim 41 wherein said common pipeline clock is operated at a rate higher than any rate used by any port in the system during a communication with a remote transceiver. 49. The method of claim 47 wherein processing operations for each port in the system are performed synchronously with respect to all other ports, and such that during any single pipeline clock period, said hardware based logic circuit performs tasks for a first port while said software based general purpose processor simultaneously performs tasks for a second port. 50. The method of claim 41 wherein at least one of such ports is a voice over DSL (VoDSL) port. 51. The method of claim 41 wherein said hardware based logic circuit is coupled through a time domain multiplexed bus to a codec, said time domain multiplexed bus transmitting frames containing both data and embedded control information. 52. A method for operating a multi-port communications system comprising the steps of: performing a first set of physical medium dependent (PMD) operations using a first subsystem including one or more PMD related integrated circuits, wherein at least one of said PMD related integrated circuits is configured to perform more than one PMD related function; performing a first set of transport convergence (TC) operations using a second subsystem, including one or more TC related integrated circuits (ASICs), wherein at least one of said TC related integrated circuits is configured to perform more than one TC related function; and coupling said second subsystem to said first subsystem through a bus master,: and performing a second set of transport convergence operations, using a third subsystem including one or more signal processing cores; and coupling said third subsystem to said first subsystem and said second subsystem through said bus master; transferring processed data with said bus master to and from a shared external memory for exchanging processing results between each of said first subsystem, said second subsystem and said third subsystem; interconnecting said first subsystem, said second subsystem and said third subsystem so that they can be used and shared by a plurality of communications ports in the multi-port communications system to support a plurality of separate data transmissions occurring at the same time. 53. The method of claim 52, further including a step of: performing both a receive based operation and a transmit related operation with at least one of said PMD related integrated circuits and at least one of said TC related integrated circuits. 54. The method of claim 53, further including a step: performing said more than one PMD related operation and said more than one TC related operation during a single DMT symbol operating cycle. 55. The method of claim 52, further including a step: implementing the system on a single system-on-chip (SOC) integrated circuit. 56. The method of claim 52, further including a step of providing a common data object structure for passing data and control information within and between each of said first subsystem, second subsystem and third subsystems. 57. A method of operating a multi-port communications system comprising the steps of: performing a first set of physical medium dependent (PMD) operations with a first subsystem including one or more PMD related integrated circuits, wherein at least one of said PMD related integrated circuits is configured to perform more than one PMD related function; and performing a first set of transport convergence (TC) operations with a second subsystem coupled to said first subsystem through a bus master, said second subsystem including one or more TC related integrated circuits, wherein at least one of said TC related integrated circuits is configured to perform more than one TC related function; and performing a second set of transport convergence operations with a third subsystem also coupled to said first subsystem and said second subsystem through said bus master, said third subsystem including one or more signal processing cores; and wherein said bus master is adapted to transfer and receive processed data from a shared external memory for exchanging processing results between each of said first subsystem, said second subsystem and said third subsystem; clocking said bus master, said second subsystem and said third subsystem with a common pipeline clock so that they are arranged in a logical pipeline arrangement using said shared external memory; and sharing said first subsystem, said second subsystem and said third subsystem with a plurality of communications ports in the multi-port communications system so that a plurality of separate data transmissions can be supported at the same time in the system. 58. The method of claim 57 wherein said common pipeline dock is operated at a rate higher than any rate used by any port in the system during a communication with a remote transceiver. 59. The method of claim 57 wherein processing operations for each port in the system are performed by an interleaved sequence of hardware and software pipeline stages as part of a logical hybrid pipeline. 60. The method of claim 58, further including a step of: providing stuffing intervals that are inserted into the logical pipeline for each port to accommodate said higher rate, during which stuffing intervals dummy data is exchanged between each of said first subsystem, said second subsystem and said third subsystem. 61. The method of claim 58, further including a step of: providing stuffing intervals that are inserted into the logical pipeline for each port to accommodate said higher rate, during which stuffing intervals control data is exchanged between one or more of said first subsystem, said second subsystem and said third subsystem. 62. The method of claim 57, further including a step of: providing a local bus for each of said second subsystem and said third subsystem so as to reduce bandwidth requirements of a common transfer bus used by the logical pipeline. 63. The method of claim 57, further including a step of providing a dual buffer for exchanging said processing results. 64. The method of claim 57, further including a step: conducting both receive and transmit operations for said plurality of ports in said logical pipeline during a complete discrete multi-tone (DMT) symbol operating cycle. 65. A method of operating a multi-port communications system comprising the steps of: providing a first subsystem for performing a first set of physical medium dependent operations; and providing a second subsystem for performing a first set of transport convergence operations; and providing a third subsystem for performing a second set of transport convergence operations; and providing a data object for passing data and control information to processing circuits within each of said first subsystem, second subsystem and third subsystems, such that said data object is used as a common mechanism for exchanging results of said processing circuits and between said first subsystem, second subsystem and third subsystems; coordinating transfers of said data object structure between such subsystems using a bus master; wherein each of said first subsystem, said second subsystem and said third subsystem are shared by a plurality of communications ports in the multi-port communications system, and each port of said plurality of communications ports uses one or more of said data object structures during a data transmission. 66. The method of claim 65, further including a step: interconnecting said second subsystem and said third subsystem in a logical pipeline using a common logical pipeline clock. 67. The method of claim 65 wherein said data object structure is used both as an input and an output mechanism for each processing stage implemented by said first subsystem, said second subsystem and said third subsystem. 68. The method of claim 65, wherein said control information includes information identifying a port associated with said data object structure. 69. The method of claim 68 wherein said control information includes information indicating a communications path associated whether said data object structure, including whether said data object structure is associated with a transmit operation or a receive operation. 70. The method of claim 69 wherein said control information includes information specific to a processing block operating on said data object structure, including a specific processing mode to be used for said data object structure. 71. The method of claim 65 wherein said control information includes information passed on by a first processing stage to a second processing stage, wherein said first processing stage and said second processing stage are separated by more than one other processing stage.