Managing Access to Shared Buffer Resources

A structure and method of allocating read buffers among multiple bus agents requesting read access in a multi-processor computer system. The number of outstanding reads a requestor may have based on the current function it is executing is dynamically limited, instead of based on local buffer space available or a fixed allocation, which improves the overall bandwidth of the requestors sharing the buffers. A requesting bus agent may control when read data may be returned from shared buffers to minimize the amount of local buffer space allocated for each requesting agent, while maintaining high bandwidth output for local buffers. Requests can be made for virtual buffers by oversubscribing the physical buffers and controlling the return of read data to the buffers.