Technique and apparatus for combining partial write transactions

摘要

A bridge includes a memory to establish a transaction table and write combining windows. Each write combining window is associated with a cache line and is subdivided into subwindows; and each of the subwindows is associated with a partial cache line. The bridge includes a controller to determine whether an incoming partial write transaction conflicts with a transaction stored in the transaction table. If a conflict occurs, the controller uses the write combining windows to combine the partial write transaction with another partial write transaction if one of the partial write combining windows is available. The controller issues a retry signal to a processor originating the partial write transaction if none of the partial write combining windows are available.