Patent ID: 6789144
Filing Date: 2004-09-07
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
A network interface device, comprising:a random access memory configured to store a plurality of frames, each frame including a frame track field including at least an end of frame address and end of frame bit; a control device configured to determine an amount of data from an oldest received frame of the plurality of frames available to be read and to determine whether at least one complete frame is stored in the random access memory; a register configured to store information representing said amount of data available to be read, and a frame status register configured to store the frame track field for the oldest received frame, wherein the control device comprises: a write controller configured to write data to the random access memory using a write pointer register, wherein the contents of the write pointer register are incremented as the data is written, a read controller configured to read data stored in the random access memory using a read pointer register, wherein the contents of the read pointer register are incremented as the data is read, and a counter for determining the number of bytes of data from the oldest received frame that are available to be read, and the counter is configured to subtract the contents of the read pointer register from the end of frame address for the oldest received frame when one or more complete frames are stored in the random access memory.