Patent ID: 8032676

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: a communication fabric to facilitate communications between a plurality of sending devices and at least one receiving device; rate logic coupled to the communication fabric, wherein the rate logic is configured to determine a data bandwidth difference between a first data bandwidth capability of the receiving device and a lower of 1) a second data bandwidth capability of a first sending device or 2) a third data bandwidth capability of the communication fabric; a comparator cooperating with the rate logic is configured to determine the bandwidth capability of the receiving device, to determine the bandwidth capability of the first sending device, and to determine the bandwidth capability of the communication fabric, wherein the communication fabric communicatively couples to the plurality of sending devices and the receiving device; and a buffer in the receiving device to receive transmissions communicated over the communication fabric, wherein the rate logic limits a transmission rate at which the first sending device sends transmissions to the receiving device to ensure the buffer does not sustain loss of data stored in the buffer and the transmission rate at which the first sending device sends transmissions is matched to the bandwidth capability of the receiving device based on the determined data bandwidth difference.