System and method for identifying pendency of a memory access request at a cache entry

Abstract

A processing system indicates the pendency of a memory access request for data at the cache entry that is assigned to store the data in response to the memory access request. While executing instructions, the processor issues requests for data to the cache most proximal to the processor. In response to a cache miss, the cache controller identifies an entry of the cache to store the data in response to the memory access request, and stores an indication that the memory access request is pending at the identified cache entry. If the cache controller receives a subsequent memory access request for the data while the memory access request is pending at the higher level of the memory hierarchy, the cache controller identifies that the memory access request is pending based on the indicator stored at the entry.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.