Format programmable hardware packetizer

摘要

A format programmable hardware packetizer (110) receives real-time raw input data (125) from a multimedia data source (103) via an analog to digital converter (105) and a data encoder (120) gated by encoder interrupts (127). The real-time raw input data is buffered in an internal byte collector of the packetizer (110). A main CPU interrupt (117) is issued to the main processor (130) when a packet boundary code is received. The packetizer (110) formats the data according to a desired format selected on line (115) for dump to the main memory (140) while providing a managed, much lower level of interrupts to the main processor (130) on the CPU interrupt line (117). A plurality of hardware packetizers (110) can be deployed according to alternative constructions for efficient real time packetizing in various selected formats.