0054 fig9 describes the processing performed by the packet generator 22 at p 110 the packet control 50 receives at least an event code and event data from the event processor 20 at p 120 packet control 50 passes the event data and event code to template storage 24 through the memory controller 33 to store the event code and event data in the packet template in ram 37 event code and event data are preferably stored in the variable bindings field of the template the asic 10 maintains a timer which is used to form a timestamp at p 130 packet control 50 accesses the timer forms the time stamp increments a sequence number and inserts the time stamp into the timestamp field and the sequence number into the sequence field of the template stored in ram 37 of template storage 24 at p 140 packet control accesses the template in ram 37 to calculate a complete checksum based on the partial checksum in template storage 24 and the dynamic fields of the udp packet and the snmp trap pdu portions of the template packet control 50 stores the complete checksum into the checksum field of the udp portion of the packet template at p 150 packet control causes the packet to be sent to the bus master 30 of bus control 26 for transmission over the first bus 32 to the communication controller which subsequently transmits the packet over.