text: 1. Field of the Disclosure
  The present disclosure relates generally to data processing, and more particularly to data processing related to the transfer of information.
  2. Description of the Related Art
  The need to communicate between electronic devices using predefined communications standards is well understood. It is a common communication standard practice to specify a timeout requirement for completion of a transaction request to allow systems and their applications to determine if a request has failed. A timeout condition is said to have occurred, thereby indicating a transmission failure, when an amount of time allowed for a transmission to complete has passed. A requesting device or application can avoid stalling by taking corrective action once a timeout condition is detected.
  Timeout conditions are detected in known devices by loading a counter with a value representative the timeout time at which a timeout condition will occur. For example, a countdown counter is loaded with a value that is decremented until a value of zero is reached, at which time a timeout condition is indicated. Systems that support multiple outstanding transactions provide a counter for each possible outstanding transaction. However, as devices become more sophisticated the cost associated with providing a large number of timeout counters capable of monitoring timeout conditions for a corresponding number of outstanding transactions has increased. This increase in cost occurs in terms of both silicon area and power consumption.
  Therefore, a method and device capable of reducing this cost would be useful.
  The use of the same reference symbols in different drawings indicates similar or identical items.