Patent ID: 8230119

Claim:
A system comprising: a device including a first input/output (I/O) module comprising a protocol stack to transmit a request packet, the request packet to include a first field to specify an atomic operation and a reference to a memory location; and a memory including the memroy location; a controller hub coupled to the device through a serial point-to-point interconnect and to the memory through a memory interface, the controller hub including: a second input/output (I/O) module including a protocol stack to receive the request packet on the serial point to point interconnect, decode logic coupled to the I/O module to decode the first field and to detect the atomic operation, and read modify write (RMW) logic to initate, in response to the second I/O module receiving the request packet and the decode logic decoding the first field, an atomic read of an old value from the memory location included in the memory device, modification of the old value to a new value, and write of the new value to the memory location.