System for, and method of, atm segmentation and re-assembly of cells providing streaming data

Abstract

Data (e.g. legacy LAN traffic) segmented into packets provide a header and a cell payload for each cell in each packet. The cell payloads are transferred to a region address in a host memory in accordance with determinations by a control memory. When the cell payload is to be transmitted from the host memory, the cell payload for a particular region address is combined with the header stored in the control memory for such address. Streaming data (e.g. voice or video) occurs at a regular rate and is not necessarily broken into packets. The streaming data is segmented to provide cell headers and cell payloads. The cell payloads are then transferred to a host receive FIFO in accordance with a determination by the control memory and are stored in a data sink. Cell payloads from a data source are transferred into a host transmit FIFO at a particular rate and are transferred from the host transmit FIFO preferably at a substantially constant rate higher than the particular rate. These FIFO cell payloads are combined with the headers in the control memory. When the cell payloads in the host transmit FIFO become almost depleted, the transmission of the cell payloads from the host transmit FIFO is skipped to allow the host transmit FIFO to receive additional cell payloads from the data source. The transmit and receive FIFO's respectively maintain cell alignment by providing particular controls with respect to the minimum and maximum number of cell payloads in the FIFO's.