Distributed data dependency stall mechanism

A method and apparatus for preventing system wide data dependent stalls is provided. Requests that reach the top of a probe queue and which target data that is not contained in an attached cache memory, are stalled until the data is filled into the appropriate location in cache memory. Only the associated central processor unit's probe queue is stalled and not the entire system. Accordingly, the present invention allows a system to chain together two or more concurrent operations for the same data block without adversely affecting system performance (Full Patent Here).