1. In a cache-coherent device including a coherency engine and a plurality of client ports, a method for processing a transaction, comprising: receiving a transaction request for a data element at one of said plurality of client ports, said transaction request includes an address; determining whether said address is present in one of a plurality of sub-unit caches, each of said sub-unit caches assigned to one of said plurality of client ports; and tracking with said coherency engine the state information of said data element in said plurality of sub-unit caches according to a coherency protocol wherein the state information is set to an intermediate state upon detection of a conflict and released from the intermediate state upon resolution of the conflict.