Patent ID: 8886889

Claim:
A method, comprising: receiving an incoming bus transaction BTR 1 corresponding to an incoming cache transaction CTR 1 for an entry in at least one cache; issuing a snoop request with a cache line address of said incoming bus transaction BTR 1 for said entry to a plurality of cache controllers; collecting at least one snoop response from said plurality of cache controllers; broadcasting a combined snoop response for said entry to said plurality of cache controllers, wherein said combined snoop response is a combination of said at least one snoop response from said plurality of cache controllers; and broadcasting cache line data from a source cache for said entry during a data phase to said plurality of cache controllers, wherein a subsequent cache transaction CTR 2 in at least one of said plurality of cache controllers for said entry is processed based on said broadcast combined snoop response and said broadcast cache line data by aligning bus transaction phases corresponding to said subsequent cache transaction CTR 2 with respect to a current bus transaction phase of said bus transaction BTR 1 using bus transaction merging techniques based on a phase of said bus transaction BTR 1 in a queue of a bus controller.