System and method for utilizing spare bandwidth to provide data integrity over a bus

摘要

A system and method for verifying integrity of data signals communicated from a data transmit device to a receive device over a communications channel of limited bandwidth. The method comprising steps of: a) detecting instances of idle data transmit activity at the transmit device; b) accumulating data integrity information for data transmitted over the communication channel between detected idle transmit instances, the accumulating being performed by data integrity verifier devices at both transmit and receive devices; c) communicating accumulated data integrity information for data transmitted since a last detected idle data transmit instance during a current detected idle data transmit instance; and, d) verifying accumulated data integrity information communicated over the channel at the receiver device. The system and method of the invention may be used to provide intermediate data integrity checks when communication of packets belonging to a stream is interrupted without compromising bandwidth utilization. Moreover, the system and method of the invention may be used to provide data integrity verification for data communicated over two or more communications channels between instances of detected idle transmit states.