Patent ID: 8719503

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving an address at a tag state array of a cache, wherein the cache is configurable to have a first size, a second size that is larger than the first size, or a third size that is larger than the second size; identifying a first portion of the address as a set index; using the set index to locate at least one tag field of the tag state array; identifying a second portion of the address to compare to a value stored at the at least one tag field; locating at least one state field of the tag state array that is associated with a particular tag field that matches the second portion; identifying a cache line based on a comparison of a third portion of the address to at least two status bits of the at least one state field, wherein a number of bits of the third portion of the address that are overlapped by the first portion of the address is based on a size of the cache; and retrieving the cache line.