Patent ID: 8002708

Claim:
A beamformer for an ultrasound system, comprising: an input for receiving ultrasound signals from a probe; an interface for communicating with an ultrasound processor; a receiver board interconnecting said input and said interface, said receiver board including multiple application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) connected with one another and arranged in first and second ASIC groups, said first ASIC group performing beamform processing on a first data subset of said received ultrasound signals and conveying a second data subset of said received ultrasound signals to said second ASIC group without beamform processing said second data subset said second ASIC group separately beamform processing said second data subset; and a control processor configured to form control instructions that direct the first ASIC group to process said first data subset and to convey said second data subset to said second ASIC group without beamform processing said second data subset.