Patent ID: 7257683

Claim:
A method of responding to a read request in a system memory having a responding memory hub and at least one interposing memory hub through which a read response is transmitted on a data path of the interposing memory hub, the method comprising: retrieving read data from a memory device coupled to the responding memory hub and preparing a read response including the read data; generating an arbitration packet including data indicative of a data path configuration for the read response, the arbitration packet having a plurality of 8-bit bytes including at least one byte including data used by the interposing memory hub to distinguish the arbitration packet from a read response; providing the arbitration packet and the read response to the interposing memory hub, the arbitration packet provided prior to the read response; and receiving the arbitration packet at the interposing memory hub, decoding the data of the arbitration packet and enabling a data path for the read response in the interposing memory hub in accordance with the data of the arbitration packet.