Patent ID: 7536510

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving a cache read request at a cache comprising a plurality of ways and a plurality of data arrays, each of the data arrays comprising a different subset of the plurality of ways, each subset comprising two or more ways of the plurality of ways; selecting cache line data from each most recently used way of each of the plurality of data arrays in response to the cache read request; selecting a first data of the received cache line data from the most recently used way of the most recently used data array of the plurality of data arrays; stalling an execution of an instruction if data identified by the cache read request is not present in the first data; selecting a second data from a most recently used way of one of the plurality of data arrays other than the most recently used data array as comprising data identified by the cache read request if data identified by the cache read request is not present in the first data; and providing the second data for use during the execution of the instruction.