Method for performing an elastic buffer of virtual depth M, elastic buffer circuit of virtual depth M and integrated circuit

• Main Authors: CHIEN, JINN-YEH, SHEU, SHEY-PING
• Format: Patent
• Language: Chinese; English
• Published: 16.03.2010
• Subjects: CALCULATING; COMPUTING; COUNTING; ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE; ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING; ELECTRICITY; MULTIPLEX COMMUNICATION; PHYSICS

Circuit and method for an adaptive elastic buffer for receiving data including timing signals. Received data is recovered and stored in the adaptive elastic buffer, and a recovery clock pointer is increased to identify the next buffer location for stuffing received data, responsive to a controller. When a data fetch enable condition occurs, the controller causes a receiver circuit to fetch the data stored at a location identified by a system clock pointer. Underflow and overflow conditions are detected and the controller adapts the effective elastic buffer depth to compensate for these conditions. A buffer of M/2 physical locations is adaptively operated to provide a data buffer of M virtual locations. A method of buffering received data with a buffer having M/2 physical locations so as to provide the benefit of a buffer with M virtual locations is disclosed.