High speed bus with alignment, re-timing and buffer underflow/overflow detection enhancements

1. A system for detecting either or both underflow and overflow of a circular buffer capable of holding n entries, wherein n is an integer of two or more, each entry including a tag portion, the system comprising:

a first counter for circularly counting through m values, wherein m is an integer less than n and is not evenly divisible into n; and

first logic for performing a read operation by (1) reading an entry from the buffer, (2) comparing the tag portion of the entry with the contents of the counter, (3) either or both (a) signaling an underflow condition if the tag portion of the entry is less than the contents of the counter, and (b) signaling an overflow condition if the tag portion of the entry exceeds the contents of the counter, and (4) otherwise updating the contents of the first counter to reflect the read operation.

2. The system of claim 1 , further comprising:

a second counter for circularly counting through m values; and

second logic for performing a write operation by (1) forming an entry to be written to the buffer, the tag portion of the entry representative of the contents of the second counter, (2) writing the entry to the buffer, and (3) updating the contents of the second counter to reflect the write operation.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the first logic is configured to update the contents of the first counter during a read operation by incrementing it, and the second logic is configured to update the contents of the second counter during a write operation by incrementing it.

4. The system of claim 2 , wherein the first logic is configured to update the contents of the first counter during a read wherein the first logic is configured to update the contents of the first counter during a read operation by decrementing it, and the second logic is configured to update the contents of the second counter during a write operation by decrementing it.

5. A method of detecting either or both underflow and overflow of a circular buffer capable of holding n entries, wherein n is an integer of two or more, each entry including a tag portion, the method comprising performing a read operation by:

reading an entry from the buffer;

comparing the tag portion of the entry with the contents of a first counter configured to circularly count through m values, where m is an integer less than n and not evenly divisible into n;

either or both (a) signaling an underflow condition if the tag portion of the entry is less than the contents of the first counter, and (b) signaling an overflow condition if the tag portion of the entry is greater than the contents of the first counter; and

updating the contents of the first counter if the contents of the first counter equal the tag portion of the entry.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising performing a write operation by:

forming an entry to be written to the buffer, the tag portion of the entry representative of the contents of a second counter configured to circularly count through m values;

writing the entry to the buffer; and

updating the contents of the second counter.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the step of updating the contents of the first counter during a read operation comprises incrementing it, and the step of updating the contents of the second counter during a write operation comprises incrementing it.

8. The method of claim 6 , wherein the step of updating the contents of the first counter during a read operation comprises decrementing it, and the step of updating the contents of the second counter during a write operation comprises decrementing it.

9. The method of claim 5 , wherein the circular buffer is a FIFO buffer.