A transmitter that does not resend a packet despite receipt of a message to resend the packet

A processing device, comprising:

• a transmitter;
• and
• a first receiver to receive packets over a first link, to validate each received packet, and to perform cut-through routing to the transmitter in which portions of a packet are to be forwarded from the first receiver to the transmitter before the entire packet is validated by the first receiver;
• wherein the transmitter also is to perform cut-through routing in which a portion of a packet received by the transmitter from the first receiver is to be transmitted by the transmitter across a second link to a second receiver before the packet is validated by the first receiver;
• and
• wherein the transmitter also is to implement link level retry in which the transmitter is to retry a packet across the second link to the second receiver upon request for a retry received over the second link, but not to retry a packet if the packet has been determined to have an error despite receipt of a request for a retry of the packet having the error.

A method, comprising:

• receiving portions of a packet at a first receiver;
• providing each received portion to a transmitter before the packet is validated;
• transmitting at least one received portion received by the transmitter across a link to a second receiver;
• detecting an error in the packet;
• marking as corrupt an entry in a retry buffer in the transmitter, the entry corresponding to the packet;
• receiving a message at the transmitter from the second receiver to resend the packet across the link;
• and
• not resending the packet by the transmitter across the link.