A printhead includes an address line, data lines, a fire pulse line, and a plurality of primitives, each primitive corresponding to a different data line and including a plurality of activation devices, each activation device corresponding to a different address of a set of addresses. A buffer receives data packets, each data packet including address data representative of an address of the set of addresses and print data for each primitive corresponding to the address. For each data packet, the buffer directs the address data to address logic and places the print data on the respective data line, and the address logic encodes the address represented by the address data onto the address line. For each primitive, the activation device corresponding to the address on the address bus activates a corresponding primitive function based on the corresponding print data when a fire pulse is present on the fire pulse line.