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29 September 1997 – Subject To Change
Clocks, Cache, and External Interface
4–15
Cache Coherency
System logic notifies the 21164PC of all DMA write operations that occur on the
system bus by using the interface FLUSH command. If the block is dirty, the
21164PC provides the data to the system and invalidates the block in the Bcache. If
the block is not dirty (clean), data is not returned, and the block is invalidated.
System logic may choose to notify the 21164PC of full cache line DMA write oper-
ations that occur on the system bus by using the interface INVALIDATE system
command. The 21164PC invalidates the Bcache block if the block was found.
Figure 4–6 shows the 21164PC cache state transitions that can occur as a result of
transactions with the system. Figure 4–7 shows the 21164PC cache state transitions
maintained by the 21164PC as a result of transactions by other nodes on the system
bus. These two figures both represent the same state machine. They show transitions
caused by the 21164PC, and by the system, separately for clarity.
Note :
The abbreviations “I”, “M” and “E” indicate the /VALID, VALID and
DIRTY, and the VALID and /DIRTY states, respectively.
Figure 4–6 Flush-Based Protocol 21164PC States
PCA009
READ MISS MOD
CPU Private Write Operation
(CPU Read for Write
Intent Operation)
READ
(CPU Read Operation)
V D
V
V D
I
E
M