Elastic configurable buffer for buffering asynchronous data

An elastic buffer (29) for buffering data between a first data bus (A) and a second data bus (B) said first data bus and said second data bus being asynchronous, said elastic buffer comprising:

• a RAM (37) partitioned into a plurality of sectors;
• a read port operatively connected to the RAM;
• a write port operatively connected to the RAM;
• a move in pointer "MIP" means coupled to the write port and generating a first set of control signals which causes said write port to write data received from the first bus into sequential addresses of each one of the plurality of independently operable sectors;
• a mark indicator means., responsive to signals from the MIP, to be set in a first state when each one of the plurality of independently operable sectors is full with data;
• and
• a move out pointer "MOP" means, coupled to the read port, for generating a second set of control signals, some of which cause the read port to read data from consecutive addresses in selected ones of the plurality of sectors and others of said second set of control signals setting the mark indicator means to a second state when each one of the sectors is empty wherein each of said sectors (41) is read according to the displacement of the move-out pointer MOP (51) across a current sector being in read mode, the event of said pointer reaching the next consecutive sector (41) causing the setting of said current sector into write mode.

An elastic buffer (29) for buffering data between a first data bus (A) and a second data bus (B) said first data bus and said second data bus being asynchronous, said elastic buffer comprising:

• a RAM (37) partitioned into a plurality of sectors (41) wherein each of said sectors (41) is delimited by a marking flag, the current value of which determines if a given sector (41) is in write mode or in read mode;
• a read port operatively connected to the RAM;
• a write port operatively connected to the RAM;
• a move in pointer "MIP" means coupled to the write port and generating a first set of control signals which causes said write port to write data received from the first bus into sequential addresses of each one of the plurality of sectors and setting the marking flag to a first value when each one of the plurality of sectors is full with data;
• and
• a move out pointer "MOP" means, coupled to the read port for generating a second set of control signals, some of which cause the read port to read data from consecutive addresses in selected ones of the plurality of sectors and others of said second set of control signals setting the marking flag to a second value when each one of the sectors is emptied.

An elastic buffer (29) for buffering data between a first data bus (A) and a second data bus (B) said first data bus and said second data bus being asynchronous, said elastic buffer comprising:

• a RAM;
• means (85, 83) for selecting any possible regular partitioning of the RAM (29) into a plurality of sectors (41) of identical size, said size being adapted to the characteristics of the data flow between the first bus (A) and the second bus (B);
• a read port operatively connected to the RAM;
• a move in pointer "MIP" means coupled to a write port and generating a first set of control signals which causes said write port to write data received from the first bus into sequential addresses of each one of the plurality of sectors;
• a mark indicator means, responsive to signals from the MIP, to be set in a first state when each one of the plurality of sectors is full with data;
• and
• a move out pointer "MOP" means, coupled to the read port, for generating a second set of control signals, some of which cause the read port to read data from consecutive addresses in selected ones of the plurality of sectors and others of said second set of control signals setting the mark indicator means to a second state when each one of the sectors is empty.

An elastic buffer for controlling the transmission of data between a plurality of data buses operating asynchronously comprising:

• a RAM partitioned into a plurality of sectors, each of said sectors containing successive memory addresses into which data is written or from which data is read;
• at least one mark flag being associated with each sector, said mark flag being operable to be set in a first state indicating the sector can be written into or a second state indicating the sector cannot be written into;
• a first means including a Move In Pointer (MIP) for generating a first set of control signals indicating sequential addresses in a sector in which data is to be written and to set the mark flag into the second state when the sector is full;
• and
• a second means including a Move Out Pointer (MOP) for generating a second set of control signals indicating sequential addresses in a sector from which data is to be read and to set the mark flag into the first state when the sector is read.

An elastic buffer for controlling the transmission of data between a plurality of data buses operating asynchronously comprising:

• a RAM partitioned into a plurality of sectors, each of said sectors containing successive memory addresses into which data is written or from which data is read;
• at least one mark flag being associated with each sector, said mark flag being operable to be set in a first state indicating the sector can be written into or a second state indicating the sector cannot be written into;
• and
• means operatively coupled to dynamically set selected mark flags into the first state and dynamically set other mark flags into a second state so that each state indicating sectors in which data can be written into (write mode) and sectors from which data can be read (read mode), with the writing of data and the reading of data occurring simultaneously;
• a Move In Pointer (MIP) to identify sequential addresses whereat data is to be written in a sector marked for writing;
• and
• a Move Out Pointer (MOP) to identify sequential addresses whereat data is to be read from a sector marked for reading.