communicating information and command selections to the host processor 22 a cursor control device 33 e g a mouse trackball etc for controlling cursor movement a mass data storage device 34 e g magnetic tapes hard disk drive floppy disk drive etc for storing information and instructions an information transceiver device 35 fax machine modem scanner etc for transmitting information from the computer system 20 to another device and for receiving information from another device and a hard copy device 36 e g plotter printer etc for providing a tangible visual representation of the information it is contemplated that the computer system shown in fig4 may employ some or all of these components or different components than those illustrated referring now to an embodiment of the present invention as shown in fig5 the hardware agent 23 is coupled to the system bus 21 to establish a communication path with the host processor 22 the hardware agent 23 comprises a single integrated circuit in the form of a die 40 e g a micro controller encapsulated within a semiconductor device package 41 preferably hermetically to protect the die 40 from damage and harmful contaminants of course multiple dice may be used in lieu of a single die implementation shown herein for illustration purposes in the example the die 40 comprises a processing unit 42 coupled to.