1. A method comprising: issuing a request hint prior to or while identifying whether requested data and/or one or more instructions are in a first memory; accessing a second memory to fetch data and/or one or more instructions in response to the request hint; storing the data and/or instruction(s) accessed from the second memory in a buffer; and if the requested data and/or instruction(s) are not in the first memory, returning the data and/or instruction(s) from the buffer.