The invention provides a system and method for resolving ambiguous invalidate
messages received by an entity of a computer system. An invalidate message is considered
ambiguous when the receiving entity cannot tell whether it applies to a previously
victimized memory block or to a memory block that the entity is waiting to receive.
When an entity receives such an invalidate message, it stores the message in its
miss address file (MAF). When the entity subsequently receives the memory block,
the entity "replays" the Invalidate message from its MAF by invalidating the block
from its cache and issuing an Acknowledgement (Ack) to the entity that triggered
issuance of the Invalidate message command.