made as to whether the data stored in the l2 cache 18 that corresponds to the requested address is stale if the data is not stale execution proceeds to step 120 wherein a burst read operation is initiated on the l2 cache 18 beginning with the first cache line that includes the data from the requested address execution then proceeds to step 122 discussed in greater detail below if at step 118 it is determined that the data stored in the l2 cache 18 is stale execution proceeds to step 124 where a burst read operation is initiated on the l1 cache 16 beginning with the first cache line that includes the data from the requested address execution then proceeds to step 126 where the data retrieved from the l1 cache 16 is written back to the l2 cache 18 execution then proceeds to step 122 at step 122 one cache line of the data retrieved from either the l1 cache 16 or the l2 cache 18 is stored inside the buffering arrangements 46 at step 128 the data stored inside the buffering arrangements 46 is written back to the main memory 22 at step 130 which occurs simultaneously with step 124 the data stored inside the buffering arrangements 46 along with the requested address are stored in the cache line buffer 48 at step 132 the counter is checked to determine if the mlp has expired if the mlp has expired execution proceeds to step 114 where the bus mastering agent is preempted and the flow sequence ends if at step 132 the mlp has not expired execution proceeds to step 136 where data stored.