Patent ID: 6925549

Claim:
A method for externally managing data within an asynchronous pipeline, wherein said asynchronous pipeline includes a plurality of pipeline stages, and a data path and a control path traversing said plurality of pipeline stages in unison, said method comprising: assigning a respective data tag value to each of a plurality of data sets, each said data set for input to said asynchronous pipeline in a respective input interval; sending each said respective data tag value into said control path when said data set to which the respective data tag value is assigned is sent into said data path such that said respective data tag value passes through each successive stage of said plurality of stages of said asynchronous pipeline in unison with said data set to which the respective data tag value is assigned, each said respective data tag value always being in the same pipeline stage as the data set to which the respective data tag value is assigned; and comparing each said data tag value with a respective control tag value associated with a given stage of said asynchronous pipeline; and in response to a data tag value matching a respective control tag value, permitting said matching data tag value and the data set to which said matching data tag value is assigned to pass in unison to a next stage within said asynchronous pipeline, wherein passing of each said data tag value and the data set to which said matching data tag value is assigned to respective next stages of said plurality of pipeline stages within said asynchronous pipeline is not synchronized to a common global clock signal.