Packet buffer equipment in which a buffer and time for packet assembly is utilized for packet header analysis and addition processing to obtain increased efficiency. The equipment aims to receive virtual channel (VC)-multiplexed ATM cells to assemble into a packet on a VC basis maintaining each received cell, to output on a packet basis. As an embodiment, cells are assembled into a packet by storing cells from the top cell to the end cell into a packet buffer memory consisting of a plurality of cell buffers to store cells. Also, a sequence controller is provided for detecting the write completion of a new header cell, and for connecting a packet in packet-under-assembly queue constituted by under-assembly pointer into an output-wait queue.
A flow-based FIFO sub-system for a disk formatter in a data processing system that performs data width conversion. The sub-system has a first FIFO unit having a first width interfacing to a first bursting channel, and a second FIFO unit having a second width interfacing to a second bursting channel, the second width not being a multiple of the first width and the first width not being a multiple of the second width. Data width conversion is performed between the first FIFO unit and the second FIFO unit to convert data moving from the first FIFO unit to the second FIFO unit from the first width to the second width, and to convert data moving from the second FIFO unit to the first FIFO unit from the second width to the first width. The sub-system also includes an Error Correcting Code interface between the first FIFO unit and the second FIFO unit for performing in-line correction.