Abstract: A device capable of indicating access modes for an accessible memory card comprises an indicator and an interface electrically connected to a controller of the accessible memory card and to the indicator. The indicator is driven by the interface to show users that the accessible memory card is performing an access operation when the controller gives commands to the accessible memory card.

Abstract: The present invention relates in general to a data processing system (10), and more particularly to a method and apparatus for providing instruction pipe (106) status information, including fullness information, external to data processing system (10). In one embodiment, an IPIPE2 integrated circuit terminal (15) is used to serially provide a pipe depth value indicating the fullness of the instruction pipe (106). The serial protocol used with the IPIPE2 (15) terminal includes a start bit, a fetch pointer value, and a plurality of idle bits. In one embodiment, IPIPE0 (13) and IPIPE1 (14) integrated circuit terminals may indicate loading and unloading of instruction pipe (106) and may stop toggling when central processing unit (102) is in a loop mode.