METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR FACILITATING SPECULATIVE STORES IN A MULTIPROCESSOR SYSTEM

One embodiment of the present invention provides a system for facilitating speculative store operations in a multiprocessor system. This system operates by maintaining a record of speculative store operations that are in process at an L2 cache in the multiprocessor system, wherein a speculative store operation is a store operation that is speculatively executed before a preceding store operation has returned. Upon receiving a load operation at the L2 cache from an L1 cache, the system examines the record of speculative store operations to determine if there exists a matching speculative store operation that is directed to the same location that the load operation is directed to. If so, the system ensures that the load operation takes place after the matching speculative store operation completes.