methods and apparatus are provided for operating an embedded processor system that includes a processor and a cache memory . the method includes filling one or more lines in the cache memory with data associated with a first task , executing the first task , and , in response to a cache miss during execution of the first task , performing a cache line fill operation and , during the cache line fill operation , executing a second task . the cache memory may notify the processor of the line fill operation by generating a processor interrupt or by notifying a task scheduler running on the processor .