Patent ID: 7577896

Claim:
An apparatus for processing protocol data units (PDUs), comprising: a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) controller that calculates a first intermediate CRC value for a first outbound partial PDU of a first plurality of outbound partial PDUs, and further calculates one or more subsequent intermediate CRC values for each of the first plurality of outbound partial PDUs remaining, a first outbound PDU comprising the first plurality of outbound partial PDUs; and a transmit handler that couples to the CRC controller, and that formats and routes to a network destination each of the first plurality of outbound partial PDUs as they are processed by the CRC controller; wherein the first intermediate CRC value is based upon an initial CRC value, and the one or more subsequent intermediate CRC values are each based upon an intermediate CRC value generated for a previously processed outbound partial PDU; and wherein a current outbound intermediate CRC value associated with the most recently processed of the first plurality of outbound partial PDUs is included within a CRC field of the first outbound PDU after the CRC controller processes a last partial outbound PDU of the first plurality of partial PDUs.