Patent ID: 7099318

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: a data path output unit to output a packet header of a packet relating to a message request transaction, the packet header including: a format field to indicate the length of the packet header and to further specify whether the packet is to include data; a subset of a type field to indicate the packet relates to a message request transaction; a message group sub-field to indicate the packet is associated with one of a plurality of message groups, each message group including one or more message types; and a message field to include a message to implement the one or more message types, the message to include at least one message selected from the following group of: a message to unlock a device, a message to reset a device, a message to indicate a correctable error condition, a message to indicate an uncorrectable error condition, a message to indicate a fatal error condition, a message to report a bad request packet and a message to emulate an interrupt signal.