US Patent 7870350 Write buffer for read-write interlocks

A write buffer for read-write interlocks improves memory access performance by minimizing the latency needed to avoid a read-after-write hazard when a read follows a write to the same memory location. Rather than waiting until a write has been stored in the memory location, the write buffer provides an acknowledgement signal before the data has been stored in memory in order for a subsequent read of the memory location to proceed. The write buffer merges the data to be written with any data that is stored in memory for the read request to return the current data for the read request.