Memory controller that provides memory line caching and memory transaction coherency by using at least one memory controller agent

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention include a memory controller that provides memory line caching and memory transaction coherency by using at least one memory controller agent. The memory controller includes at least one memory-controller agent, an incoming memory-transaction dispatch unit, and an outgoing memory-transaction completion unit. Each memory-controller agent has a memory-line memory controller and a memory-line coherency controller, along with a cache memory capable of caching the contents of a memory line along with coherency information for the memory line. Memory transactions are received from cacheable entities of a computer system at the incoming memory-transaction dispatch unit, and are then presented to one or more agents. If multiple memory-read transactions are received for a single memory line, the agents will configure themselves into a linked list to queue up the requests.