Patent ID: 8290995

Claim:
A method comprising: a first component receiving first and second requests; generating first and second priority values corresponding to the first and second requests, respectively, wherein the first and second priority values are not equal to each other; the first component processing the first and second requests to generate third and fourth requests, respectively, wherein the first request is processed before the second request if the first priority value is numerically greater than the second priority value, or the first request is processed after the second request if the first priority value is numerically less than the second priority value; the first component transmitting the third and fourth requests along with the first and second priorities, respectively, to a second component; the second component receiving the third request along with the first priority value; the second component receiving the fourth request along with the second priority value; the second component processing the third and fourth transactions wherein the third request is processed before the fourth request if the first priority value is numerically greater than the second priority value, or the third request is processed after the fourth request if the first priority value is numerically less than the second priority value.