Method of assigning a data packet to a channel in a IEEE 1394 communications system

DMA channel receive packet comparator logic (74) of PCI-interface ASIC (20) assigns a data packet (106) through a data communications channel and includes DMA channel comparator logic (110) for receiving at least a portion of a data packet (108) in data packet comparison circuit (110). Data packet comparison circuit (120) compares at least a portion of data packet (108) to a predetermined match data set (122). Portion (108) and match data set (122) form programmably varying data fields (WD0, WD1) corresponding to at least one data communications channel (117, 119, 121, 123). In the event of a predetermined correspondence between portion (108) and match data set (122), a channel select signal (117, 119, 121, 123) goes to priority encoder (125).