Natural throttling of data transfer across asynchronous boundaries

Abstract

A data transmission system includes a sender and a receiver, both employing different clock rates and a data bus coupled between the sender and the receiver for transmitting signals therebetween. The receiver generates an enable signal from the receiver clock to control data transmission at the sender. The enable signal is a pulse generated at each rising edge of the receiver clock and corresponds to the data transfer rate of the receiver clock. A detector module, located at the sender, receives and captures the asynchronous enable signal and initiates transmission of one data byte for each pulse of the enable signal, thereby automatically adjusting the data transfer rate of the sender to the data transfer rate of the receiver.