Patent ID: 7265700

Claim:
Apparatus for extracting individual pulses from an input signal, the apparatus comprising: a. an input terminal operable to receive an input signal comprising a stream of pulses; b. an analog to digital converter (ADC) having an input coupled to the input terminal for receiving the input signal, the ADC operable to convert the received input signal into digital data samples, and provide the digital data samples at an output; c. memory comprising a plurality of logically separate memory buffers coupled to the output of the ADC operable to store the digital data samples; d. a pulse extraction circuit having an input coupled to the output of the ADC operable to detect leading and trailing pulse edges in the digital data samples and an output; e. a memory buffer controller coupled to the output of the ADC, the memory and the output of the pulse extraction circuit operable to control storage of the digital data samples in the memory, wherein the digital data samples are stored into at least two memory buffers such that the digital data samples are stored into at least a current buffer and a next buffer, and wherein, when a pulse trailing edge is detected in the data samples being stored in the current buffer, that current buffer is stopped from storing further digital data samples and the next buffer becomes the current buffer with a new buffer becoming the next buffer; and f. an output terminal operable to provide the digital data samples from the current buffer after the current buffer has stopped storing further digital samples.