Approach to Directly Performing Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) Adaptation Layer 5 Reassembly

A method of transferring data from an ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) physical device to an application specific circuit (ASIC) comprised of receiving a continuous stream of ATM cells from the ATM physical device, identifying a virtual circuit from a header of each cell, providing an identification (address) of the virtual circuit to an output for reception by the ASIC, providing a continuous stream of payload contents of each cell received from the ATM physical device directly to an output for reception by the ASIC, calculating a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) on data carried by cells forming each packet for each to virtual circuit address and providing an indication to the ASIC of invalid data relating to a packet having a particular virtual circuit in the event the CRC is indicative that data in a packet is incorrect.