Digital Equipment Company

Mark N Howard

John M Parchem

Darrel D Donaldson

Douglas D Williams

David A Orbits

David M Robinson

A cache coherency protocol for a multi-processor system which provides for read/write, read-only and transitional data states and for an indication of these states to be stored in a memory directory in main memory. The transitional data state occurs when a processor requests from main memory a data block in another processor's cache and the request is pending completion. All subsequent read requests for the data block during the pendency of the first request are inhibited until completion of the first request. Also provided in the memory directory for each data block is a field for identifying the processor which owns the data block in question. Data block ownership information is used to determine where requested owned data is located.

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Issaquah, WA, United States of America

Mark N Howard