Patent ID: 8718545

Claim:
A method comprising: comparing a capacitor voltage of a capacitor of a transponder, the capacitor for storing power transmitted via an air interface, with a threshold voltage, the transponder having an arithmetic logic unit configured to be supplied with the at least a portion of the stored power; determining, at a first time and in response to determining that the capacitor voltage of the capacitor exceeds the threshold, to operate in a first operating mode, the first operating mode comprising performing a number of routines having different associated priorities; updating a status register of the arithmetic logic unit with an indicator of the determined first operating mode; determining, at a second time and in response to determining that the capacitor voltage of the capacitor is below the threshold, to operate in a second operating mode, the second operating mode suspending at least one low-priority routine at a place within a run of the at least one low-priority routine and continuing at least one higher-priority routine; updating a status register of the arithmetic logic unit with an indicator of the second operating mode; and resuming, in response to determining at a third time that the capacitor voltage of the capacitor exceeds the threshold, the at least one previously-suspended low-priority routine from the place within the run at which the at least one previously-suspended low-priority routine was suspended.