Patent ID: 7865698

Claim:
A method for decoding, comprising: obtaining an op-code from a master device; setting a mode, within a single configuration register defining a group of instructions for a slave device, to mask a first portion of the bits of the op-code when checking for a user defined instruction, wherein each instruction of the group of instructions is a user defined instruction; the first portion of the bits for being treated as a wildcard value; decoding a second portion of the op-code which is not masked to determine whether the op-code corresponds to the group of instructions for the slave device by performing a comparison using the single configuration register; the decoding of the second portion being performed by a controller having a decoder; the controller bridging the master device for communication with the slave device; decoding the first portion of the bits by the slave device; and the first portion of the bits identifying a particular instruction from the group of instructions; wherein instructions are identifiable as being part of the group of instructions using the single configuration register of a plurality of configuration registers of the controller.