hardware circular buffer

from The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)

hardware circular buffer

   <programming, hardware> {digital signal processors} which
   support hardware {circular buffers} automatically generate and
   increment {pointers} for {memory} accesses which wrap to the
   beginning of the {buffer} when its end is reached, thus saving
   the time and instructions otherwise needed to ensure that the
   address pointer stays within the boundary of the buffer, and
   speeding the execution of repetitive DSP algorithms.

   Digital Signal Processor For Digital Audio Applications
   
(http://analog.com/publications/documentation/21065L_Audio_Tutorial.PDF).

   (2000-06-17)