Patent ID: 8533395

Claim:
A method, comprising: locking a cache line into a multi-level cache hierarchy including a first level cache and a second level cache, the locking including attaching a lock indication property to a cache line tag associated with the cache line responsive to identifying that the cache line moves from the first level cache to the second level cache, the attaching including setting the lock indication property to indicate that the cache line is unavailable for eviction from the multi-level cache hierarchy upon a cache miss, the cache line tag configured to move with the cache line; moving the lock indication property attached to the cache line tag from the second level cache to another level cache including the first level cache responsive to identifying that the cache line moves from the second level cache to the other level cache; and transferring the lock indication property associated with the cache line from the first level cache to the second level cache responsive to an eviction of the cache line from the first level cache to the second level cache.