Patent ID: 7856535

Claim:
A system of adaptive snoop-and-forward, comprising: a node comprising at least one cache; a preceding node; a subsequent node; an interconnect network operatively connecting the node, the preceding node and the subsequent node, wherein the preceding node is preceding to the node in the interconnect network, and wherein the subsequent node is subsequent to the node in the interconnect network; an adaptive snoop-and-forward mechanism comprising a snoop-and-forward prediction mechanism, wherein, when the node receives a cache request from the preceding node, the snoop-and-forward prediction mechanism determines one of lazy forwarding or eager forwarding be used in handling the cache request, wherein, if the snoop-and-forward prediction mechanism determines that lazy forwarding be used, the node forwards the cache request to the subsequent node after completing an intra-node cache snoop operation; wherein, if the snoop-and-forward prediction mechanism determines that eager forwarding be used, the node forwards the cache request to the subsequent node before completing an intra-node cache snoop operation; and wherein the node generates a partially combined snoop response (PCSR) by combining an intra-node cache snoop response with a preceding PCSR from the preceding node, and sends the PCSR to the subsequent node.