The TI380FPA frame processing accelerator (FPA) provides hardware to accelerate the processing rate of frames by the network communications processor (commprocessor). It supports a 4-MHz or 6-MHz adapter local bus operation. The CPU of a normal TI380C2x or TI380C3x adapter is responsible for frame transport between network and host, gathering adapter and network statistics, local-network-management protocols, and medium-access-control (MAC) protocols. The TI380FPA puts the performance bottlenecks of frame transport and statistics gathering into dedicated hardware, leaving the CPU to run MAC and management protocols. The TI380FPA is responsible for: