Increased speed of processing of data received over a communications link

An apparatus for providing efficient support for at least one media device driver, the apparatus comprising:

• a processor;
• at least one input channel map;
• at least one output channel map;
• and
• a computer readable apparatus comprising storage media comprising a computer program having a plurality of instructions which, when executed on said processor, enable said apparatus to:
• unpack a plurality of input packets into a first set of said data channels based at least in part on said at least one input channel map;
• publish a second set of data channels to at least one media device driver;
• and
• where the at least one media device driver is configured to process only the published second set of data channels.

A method for processing at least one frame of data comprising a plurality of data channels, each data channel comprising a plurality of sequential data samples, said data channels being packed within said at least one frame of data, the method comprising:

• receiving a device descriptor comprising information enabling unpacking of said at least one frame of data;
• publishing, based at least in part on said information enabling unpacking of said frames of data:
• a steering table indicating a channel order, said channel order describing the order of packed data channels within said frames of data;
• a stride map indicating at least one stride size, said at least one stride size determining the number of data samples to skip, corresponding to others of said data channels, between sequential data samples of the same data channel;
• and
• a channel map indicating one or more start addresses, wherein said start addresses for said data channels reside within said sample buffer, wherein the channel map accomodates a mismatched sample size or packet size with respect to an application stream size.

An apparatus for processing frames of data comprising a plurality of data channels, each data channel comprising a plurality of sequential data samples;

• wherein said data channels are disposed within said frames of data, the apparatus comprising:
• a first interface configured to receive packetized data comprising device descriptors, and said frames of data;
• a sample buffer capable of storage of one or more of said frames of data;
• a computer readable apparatus comprising media containing at least one computer program having a plurality of instructions, said plurality of instructions which, when executed, cause said apparatus to:
• read a device descriptor comprising information enabling unpacking of said frames of data;
• read one or more of said frames of data in said sample buffer;
• unpack said read one or more frames into its constituent data channels based at least in part on said information in said device descriptor;
• and
• publish only a subset of the constituent data channels to an audio device driver, wherein the audio device driver responsively processes only the published subset.

An apparatus for processing frames of data comprising a plurality of data channels, each data channel comprising a plurality of sequential data samples;

• wherein said data channels are disposed within said frames of data, the apparatus comprising:
• a first interface configured to receive packetized data comprising device descriptors, and said frames of data;
• a sample buffer capable of storage of one or more of said frames of data;
• one or more channel buffers, said channel buffers capable of storage of at least one of said data channels within said frames of data;
• and
• a computer readable apparatus comprising media containing at least one computer program having a plurality of instructions, said plurality of instructions which, when executed, cause said apparatus to:
• receive a device descriptor comprising information enabling unpacking of said frames of data;
• read one or more of said frames of data in said sample buffer;
• unpack said read one or more frames into a first set of data channels based at least in part on said information in said device descriptor;
• publish a second set of data channels to at least one audio device driver;
• and
• where the at least one audio device driver processes only the published second set of data channels.