Patent ID: 8443113

Claim:
A communication apparatus comprising: a transmission module configured to transmit signals; a reception module configured to receive signals; a responding module configured to respond so as to switch a communication state from a first state, in which transmission and reception of signals are halted, to a second state, in which transmission and reception of signals are routinely performed, when a plurality of commands in a specific sequence are transmitted and received by the transmission module and the reception module, respectively; a testing module configured to execute testing of whether or not the responding module is correctly responding to the plurality of commands transmitted and received by the transmission module and the reception module, respectively, the testing being performed via a loop-back mode transmission and reception path configured so that the reception module receives commands transmitted by the transmission module; and a controlling module configured to control the transmission module to transmit a specific command, to control the reception module to receive the specific command via the transmission and reception path and to deactivate a response to the received specific command, and to control the transmission module to transmit an ALIGN primitive based on a reception of the specific command by the reception module subsequent to transmitting the specific command and deactivating the response to the received specific command, when the testing is executed by the testing module, wherein the testing executed by the testing module is testing of signal transmission and reception according to a Serial ATA (SATA) OOB sequence, and wherein the first state is either PARTIAL status or SLUMBER status, the second state is PHYRDY status, and the specific command is COMWAKE.