Patent ID: 7027547
Filing Date: 2006-04-11
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. An apparatus comprising: a buffer to receive a data stream, wherein data is written to the buffer according to a first clock, the buffer configured as a first-in first-out stack; a character monitor coupled to the buffer to monitor the occurrence of an inter-packet gap in the data stream containing removable filler characters and identify the removable filler characters in the buffer; and a channel controller configured to read data from the buffer according to a second clock and transmit it over an output channel, the channel controller to skip the transmission of one or more removable filler characters if the first clock is faster than the second clock to match the first and second clock rates, the channel controller including a read pointer controller, the read pointer controller to access a first, a second, a third, and a fourth data sets stored in the buffer, the first, second, third, and fourth data sets forming contiguous parts of the data stream in that order with the first data set being first in the data stream and the fourth data set being last in the data stream, wherein in a first mode of operation the channel controller transmits the first and second data sets over the output channel.