Patent ID: 7653757

Claim:
A system comprising: a bus configured to operate according to a bus protocol; a plurality of devices coupled to the bus, wherein the plurality of devices are configured to transmit and receive information over the bus according to the bus protocol, wherein each of the plurality of devices is uniquely identified by corresponding one or more addresses; wherein a first one of the plurality of devices is configured to initiate a bus operation on the bus, by placing a specified address of the one or more addresses that uniquely identifies the first one of the plurality of devices onto the bus, wherein the specified address is the initial address placed onto the bus; wherein the bus operation comprises transmitting specified information onto the bus; wherein at least a second one of the plurality of devices is configured to receive the specified address and the specified information, and utilize the specified information to perform one or more functions in response to receiving the specified address; wherein at least a subset of the plurality of devices constitutes a group; wherein for any given device in the group each one of the one or more addresses that uniquely identifies the given device comprises a respective first segment of bits and a respective second segment of bits; wherein each respective first segment of bits specifies the group; wherein each respective second segment of bits specifies the given device within the group; wherein each device of the group comprises: an address register configured to store at least one of the one or more addresses that uniquely identifies the device; and a mask register configured to mask out at least a portion of the address register wherein the portion corresponds to the respective second segment of bits of the at least one of the one or more addresses that uniquely identifies the device.