Abstract: Methods of managing a receive buffer in a receiving communications terminal are disclosed, the receive buffer including a data memory organized into a plurality of individually addressable data words and into a plurality of segments, each of which is larger than one addressable data word but smaller than a maximum frame size. The methods include receiving a frame of data from an originating communications terminal, storing the received frame of data in the receive buffer beginning at a selected segment of a group of reserved segments, and releasing a number of the reserved segments equal to the number of segments in a maximum frame size less an actual number of segments occupied by the received frame.

Abstract: A device includes a loop port controlled by a loop initialization procedure in response to control flags. The device includes a programmable controller and a fibre channel loop port including a transmitter, a receiver, and a port control circuit. The port control circuit controls the loop initialization procedure in response to control flags set by the programmable controller. Methods of performing loop initialization in a loop port include initializing a loop initialization protocol (LIP) hardware state machine, controlling LIP operations with the LIP hardware state machine, determining if control of the loop initialization operations should be transferred to a programmable controller in response to a predetermined loop initialization event, and if so, transferring control of the loop initialization operations to the programmable controller.