Patent ID: 8065450

Claim:
A frame transfer method comprising: storing an address of a shared buffer from which frame data has not been read out within one monitor cycle that is a certain fixed time for which the frame data should be read out without fail under a normal operation free from an error after the frame data had been written in the shared buffer, detecting the address in a next monitor cycle; and setting the address detected in the next monitor cycle as a free address of the shared buffer, wherein the storing includes managing a read address at a time when reading the frame data is performed from the shared buffer as a free address, generating the monitor cycle, and setting to a first state a check bit composed of a write flag and a monitor flag combined with a write address upon writing the frame data in the shared buffer, updating the check bit in the first state to a second state at starting the one monitor cycle, and updating, when the frame data is then read from the shared buffer during the one monitor cycle, a check bit for the read address from the second state to a third state, and the setting the address includes releasing, when the second state is detected during the next monitor cycle, the address detected as a free address.