Method and system for providing an eviction protocol within a non-uniform memory access system

摘要

A method and system for providing an eviction protocol within a non-uniform memory access (NUMA) computer system are disclosed. A NUMA computer system includes at least two nodes coupled to an interconnect. Each of the two nodes includes a local system memory. In response to a request for evicting an entry from a sparse directory, an non-intervention writeback request is sent to a node having the modified cache line when the entry is associated with a modified cache line. After the data from the modified cache line has been written back to a local system memory of the node, the entry can then be evicted from the sparse directory. If the entry is associated with a shared line, an invalidation request is sent to all nodes that the directory entry indicates may hold a copy of the line. Once all invalidations have been acknowledged, the entry can be evicted from the sparse directory.