| CPC G06F 12/0862 (2013.01) [G06F 12/0811 (2013.01); G06F 12/0815 (2013.01)] | 21 Claims |

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1. A method comprising:
providing, for a cache hierarchy, a messaging protocol used for transfer operations among agents in the cache hierarchy, the messaging protocol indicating acceptable cache coherency states for a cache block indicated in a request message; and
providing, in the messaging protocol for selection by an agent, a speculative request indicator when sending the request message, wherein the speculative request indicator differentiates between a demand request and a speculative request with respect to the cache block, wherein selection of the speculative request indicator includes at least selecting a bit for an invalid state.
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