Method for a slave device to convey an interrupt and interrupt source information to a master device

A system comprising:

• a bidirectional data bus;
• a master device operable to issue bus operation requests over the bidirectional data bus;
• and
• a slave device operable to receive the bus operation requests over the bidirectional data bus, wherein the slave device is operable to issue a respective bus operation response in response to each received bus operation request, wherein in issuing the respective bus operation response the slave device is operable to include relevant cause information of an interrupt condition in the bus operation response.

A computer system comprising:

• a bidirectional data bus;
• a central processing unit operable to issue read request packets and/or write request packets over the bidirectional data bus;
• and
• an Input/Output device operable to receive the read request packets and/or write request packets over the bidirectional data bus, wherein the Input/Output device is operable to:
• issue a respective read response packet in response to each received read request packet;
• and
• issue a respective write response packet in response to each received write request packet;
• wherein the respective read response packet and the respective write response packet comprise respective interrupt source identifying information for corresponding pending interrupts.