1. A method for processing an atomic operation transmitted from an intermediate cache coupled to one or more clients and to an external memory, the method comprising: receiving an atomic command and an atomic data payload from the intermediate cache; storing the atomic data payload in a first buffer; storing the atomic command in a command buffer; determining whether a second portion of data necessary to process the atomic command is available in a local cache unit; upon obtaining the second portion of data, transmitting the atomic command, the atomic data payload and the second portion of data to an arithmetic logic unit for processing; and transmitting result data associated with the processed atomic command to the intermediate cache.