Patent ID: 7765363

Claim:
A system, comprising: a plurality of cache agents; a computing entity coupled to said cache agents, wherein said computing entity spawns multiple operating environments using said cache agents and said computing entity programs multiple programmable masks, one programmable mask for each operating environment, and said computing entity provides a copy of each programmable mask to its respective operating environment; wherein each programmable mask for a given operating environment is associated with at least one memory address and is indicative of those cache agents in that operating environment that can receive a snoop request associated with a memory address; wherein, based on each such programmable mask, said computing entity transmits snoop requests, associated with said memory address, to only those cache agents identified by said programmable mask as cache agents that can receive a snoop request associated with the memory address; and wherein the computing entity programs a computing entity mask that is separate from said programmable masks, is used exclusively by said computing entity, and causes said computing entity to transmit snoop requests to all of said plurality of cache agents without regard to any of the programmable masks.