Read exclusive for fast, simple invalidate

A carrier medium comprising a database which is operated upon by a program executable on a computer system, the program operating on the database to perform a portion of a process to fabricate an integrated circuit including circuitry described by the database, the circuitry described in the database including an agent comprising:

• a cache;
• and
• an interface circuit coupled to said cache and coupled to communicate on an interface, wherein the interface circuit is configured to initiate a read exclusive transaction on the interface, and wherein the interface circuit is configured to provide a response in a response phase of the read exclusive transaction if the read exclusive transaction is to a first cache block that is shared in the cache.

A method comprising:

• an agent initiating a read exclusive transaction on an interface;
• and
• the agent providing a response in a response phase of the read exclusive transaction if the read exclusive transaction is to a first cache block that is shared in a cache included within the agent.