Abstract: Approaches, techniques, and mechanisms are disclosed for improving the efficiency with which data units are handled within a device, such as a networking device. Received data units, or portions thereof, are temporarily stored within one or more memories of a merging component, while the merging component waits to receive control information for the data units. Once received, the merging component merges the control information with the associated data units. The merging component dispatches the merged data units, or portions thereof, to an interconnect component, which forwards the merged data units to destinations indicated by the control information. The device is configured to intelligently schedule the dispatching of merged data units to the interconnect component. To this end, the device includes a scheduler configured to select which merged data units to dispatch at which times based on a variety of factors described herein.