Patent ID: 7752411

Claim:
A chip comprising: a link interface; monitoring circuitry to provide a link activity indicator that is indicative of activity of a link coupled to the link interface; scheduling circuitry to schedule commands to be transmitted by the link interface; and mode selection circuitry to select a first mode if the link activity indicator is in a first range, to select a second mode if the link activity indicator is in a second range, and to select a third mode if the link activity indicator is in a third range, wherein in the first mode the scheduling circuitry schedules certain of the commands as separate single commands, in the second mode the scheduling circuitry schedules at least one consolidated command, and in the third mode the scheduling circuitry schedules at least one additional consolidated command that is not scheduled in the second mode, wherein each of the consolidated commands is a command that represents more than one of the separate single commands.