Method and apparatus for network streaming

A streaming peripheral for use in a streaming system that comprises a processor and a controller operably coupled to the streaming peripheral via a shared interconnect, wherein the streaming peripheral comprises:

• an addressable payload buffer area identifiable by a descriptor, wherein the addressable payload buffer area comprises a data payload;
• an interface operably coupled to the addressable payload buffer area, wherein the addressable payload buffer area is arranged to be directly accessible by the controller and the data payload fetched from the streaming peripheral across the interface by the controller is based on the identifying descriptor.

A controller for use in a streaming system that comprises a processor and a streaming peripheral operably coupled to the controller via a shared interconnect, wherein the controller comprises:

• a logic circuit arranged to read at least one descriptor created by the processor that points to at least one header data element in memory and at least one payload buffer element in the streaming peripheral;
• and
• a fetching module operably coupled to the logic circuit and arranged to directly access the at least one header data element from memory and the at least one payload element from the payload buffer in the streaming peripheral referred to by the descriptor.