A high-performance crossbar for a pipeline is disclosed. In particular, one embodiment of the crossbar receives multimedia data at a first throughput from a source operating in a first pipeline stage. The received data are stored in at least one input buffer corresponding to the source in the crossbar. The crossbar also causes the multimedia data from the input buffer to be routed to at least one output buffer at a second throughput. The output buffer corresponds to a destination operating in a second pipeline stage. Then the crossbar causes the multimedia data from the output buffer to be routed to the destination at the first throughput.