1. A data structure in a machine readable form for use by a plurality of processing circuitry blocks in a communications system comprising: a first portion containing data relating to one or more of a plurality of parameters associated with the control and/or the configuration of one or more processing circuitry blocks; a second portion containing data associated with computations performed by said one or more processing circuitry blocks; wherein data contained in said first portion and said second portion can be updated in connection with said computations performed by said one or more processing circuitry blocks; further wherein said first portion and/or said second portion are usable by a plurality of processing circuitry blocks in connection with a logical pipeline processing operation.