Patexia seeks prior art for US Patent 7,412,549 (‘549) which allegedly describes a method for communicating data between an initiator unit and a target unit. When an initiator unit (INIT) indicates a request to initiate communication, the target unit (TRGT) provides information indicating whether one of the following situations exists; the INIT has to maintain the request, the request of the INIT is accepted, or the request of the INIT has been rejected. Data can be communicated between an INIT and a TRGT unit by following these steps (Figure 1):

Figure 1: Communicating data between an initiator unit (INIT) and a target unit (TRGT)

• An initiator unit (INIT) indicates a request for a communication thread to a target unit (TRGT).
• This request can contain a communication thread identifier (TID).
• The TRGT determines whether the request is accepted or rejected.
• The TRGT determines whether the INIT should maintain the request.
• The TRGT provides information to the INIT indicating whether the request is to be maintained, the request is accepted, or the request is rejected.
• Data is transmitted from the TRGT to the INIT by a first and a second signal.
• The first signal indicates whether the TRGT is ready (READY) or not and the second signal indicates whether the TRGT accepts (ACCEPTC) or rejects the request.

Questions

1. Was the source filed or published before May 8th, 2003?
2. Does the source describe data communication between two or more functional units?
3. Does the source describe an initiator unit, which initiates a request for communication, and a target unit, which receives the request?
4. Does the initiator unit make reference to a communication thread identifier?
5. (New Question) Does the source describe the target unit organizing task priority for tasks with the same communication thread identifier by preserving the order in which the task was received?
6. (New Question) Does the source describe the target unit processing the earliest task to be received as the first to be processed?
7. Does the target unit determine whether a request should be accepted or rejected?
8. Does the target unit provide information indicating whether or not the initiator unit should maintain its request?
9. Does the target unit transmit data to the initiator unit as a first and second signal?
10. Does the first signal indicate whether the target unit is ready or not?
11. Does the second signal indicate whether the target unit accepts or rejects the request?