Patent ID: 7934029

Claim:
An integrated circuit comprising: a first device; a second device; communication circuitry coupled to said first device and to said second device, said communication circuitry providing data communication between said first device and said second device; transfer forming circuitry coupled to said first device and said communication circuitry to form a data transfer including a representation of a repeating pattern of data values; and pattern forming circuitry coupled to said second device and responsive to said representation within said data transfer received from said first device using said communication circuitry to form said repeating pattern of data values to be received by said second device, wherein said representation is a sideband signal accompanying said data transfer, said data transfer includes a single data value and said pattern forming circuitry is responsive to said sideband signal to form said repeating pattern from said single data value, wherein a further device, coupled to said communication circuitry and not responsive to said sideband signal, detects said data transfer as a data transfer of said single data value alone.