Patent ID: 7043593

Claim:
For use with a master unit and a slave unit that are coupled together by a data bus, wherein said master unit is capable of sending a data transaction to said slave unit through said data bus, and wherein said slave unit is capable of executing said data transaction, an apparatus comprising: an apparatus for causing said slave unit to execute said data transaction by one of executing said data transaction “in order” with respect to other data transactions received by said slave unit and executing said data transaction “out of order” with respect to other data transactions received by said slave unit; an execution order assignment unit in said master unit that is capable of assigning a priority identifier to said data transaction, wherein said priority identifier indicates whether said data transaction is to be executed “in order” or “out of order” with respect to other data transactions; and an execution order analysis unit in said slave unit that is capable of determining said priority identifier assigned to said data transaction, and in response to said determination, causing said data transaction to be executed as one of an “in order” data transaction and an “out of order” data transaction.