Patent ID: 7631097

Claim:
A system comprising: a receiving device; and a transmitting device operable to transmit data in a plurality of packets to the receiving device, wherein each of the data packets is a predetermined number of data bytes wide, wherein the transmitting device includes a transfer count unit operable to maintain a data transfer count based on a number of transmitted data bytes; wherein the receiving device is operable to program the transmitting device with a transfer count mark to request a desired number of data bytes, wherein the transfer count mark is a number that corresponds to a specific count of the data transfer count; wherein the transmitting device is operable to calculate a difference between the data transfer count and the transfer count mark; wherein, in response to the difference between the data transfer count and the transfer count mark being greater than or equal to the predetermined number, the transmitting device is operable to transmit a packet having the predetermined number of data bytes to the receiving device; wherein, in response to the difference between the data transfer count and the transfer count mark being less than the predetermined number, the transmitting device is operable to transmit a short data packet having less than the predetermined number of data bytes to the receiving device; and wherein the transmitting device further comprises an additive transfer count unit, wherein the receiving device is operable to determine whether the data transfer count is at or below a threshold level during a continuous data acquisition operation, wherein if the data transfer count is at or below the threshold level the receiving device is operable to program the additive transfer count unit of the transmitting device, wherein in response to said programming the additive transfer count unit is operable to update the data transfer count.