A data bus bridge circuit and method are provided for coupling a slave device with a data bus in a system in which data words are transferred between a master device and the slave device over the data bus. The method includes creating a merge tree defining leaf nodes associated with columns corresponding to a first position of a sliding window. The capping mechanism uses a page width elastomeric seal, which can move between a first capping position, in which it seals said nozzles of the printhead in an air tight manner, and a second position in which the elastomeric seal moves away from said print head to allow paper to be printed upon by said print head.