A transmit and receive machine (TRM) is part of a medium access controller (MAC), in support of the 802.11 wireless standard. The TRM is a control machine that changes the MAC within which it resides from a purely software-based MAC into a software and hardware management system. Timing-critical tasks that were once performed by the embedded processor of the MAC are performed by the TRM. This change enables the MAC to operate at a high speed while the TRM maintains high accuracy of transmit and receive timing operations.