Patent ID: 7149226

Claim:
A method of processing data packets comprising: receiving an enqueue command specifying a new buffer and a queue descriptor, the queue descriptor specifying one of a most recently used queue and a least recently used queue, with the most recently used queue descriptors each being stored in a cache and comprising a head pointer pointing to a first buffer in a queue of buffers and a tail pointer pointing to a last buffer in the queue of buffers and with the first buffer having a buffer pointer pointing to a next buffer in the queue; in response to the queue descriptor specifying a most recently used queue, setting a buffer pointer associated with the last buffer in the specified queue to point to the new buffer and setting the tail pointer in the specified queue to point to the new buffer; and in response to the queue descriptor specifying a least recently used queue, replacing a most recently used queue descriptor in the cache with the queue descriptor specifying the least recently used queue.