Patent ID: 7551645

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: a data aligner to receive data, having a first data format based on a system packet interface (SPI) protocol that has a first byte-length granularity of two bytes and a second data format based on other than the SPI protocol that has a second byte-length granularity where the first and second byte-length granularities are different, from a data transmission link having a first data width and to align the data into predefined segments for interim storage, based on storage devices in which each storage device has a single read port and a single write port of a fixed byte length, the data aligner to multiplex each two-byte segment of the data in the first data format to remove interleaved command segments from the received data, prepend a fragment remaining from earlier received data when the fragment is present, and contiguously align remaining data segments to the fixed byte length boundary; and a buffer, formed from the storage devices, to receive aligned data from the data aligner for interim storage and to reassemble data output onto a data path having a second data width that is wider than the first data width, the buffer to allow storage of aligned data in wider format to maintain sufficient bandwidth to account for frequency scaling of received data rate to frequency of the data path, based on the first and second byte-length granularity of the received data, and process fragmentation of data for alignment onto the data path by storing a fragment in a next selected storage device to prepend in a next byte length boundary, the buffer to use the storage devices in a cyclic manner based on the byte-length granularity of the received data, in which buffering of the received data of different byte-length granularity is achieved using storage devices having the single read port and the single write port.