Patent ID: 7340539

Claim:
A bus-connected device at least one of transmitting data to at least one other device through a bus and receiving data from at least one other device through the bus, the bus-connected device comprising: storage devices in which data to be transmitted or received is temporarily stored, said storage devices being memories or memory areas; a control device connected to said storage devices and programmed to at least one of: determine if any data is to be transmitted and, if data is to be transmitted, to determine which of said storage devices is storing the data to be transmitted next; and determine in which of said storage devices the received data are to be stored; and one of said control device and another component of the bus-connected device being programmed to write into each storage device the information utilized to allocate a priority level to the data stored in that storage device, said information not being transmitted through the bus, and said control device being programmed to access each storage device of said storage devices and read said information stored therein prior to using said information to decide at least one of: which of said storage devices stores the data to be transmitted next; and in which of said storage devices the received data are to be stored.