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Abstract

Data processing apparatus 10 supporting circular buffers CB includes address storage ARx for holding a virtual buffer index and offset storage BOFxx for holding an offset address. Circular buffer management logic 802 is configured to be operable to apply a modifier to a virtual buffer index held in the address storage to derive a modified virtual buffer index and to apply a buffer offset held in the offset storage to the modified virtual buffer index to derive a physical address for addressing a circular buffer. By employing virtual addressing to a buffer index for a circular buffer management, it is possible to make efficient use of memory resources. One or more circular buffers can be located contiguously with respect to each other and/or other data in memory, avoiding fragmentation of the memory. The buffer index forms a pointer for the circular buffer. The apparatus enables circular buffers to be implemented without alignment constraints, while maintaining compatibility with prior circular buffer implementations with alignment constraints.

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First Claim