A technique for operating a data processing system that implements a split transaction coherency protocol that has an address tenure and a data tenure includes receiving, at a data source, a command (that includes an address tenure for requested data) that is issued from a data sink. The data source issues a response that indicates data associated with the address tenure is available to be transferred to the data sink during a data tenure. In response to determining that the data is available subsequent to issuing the response, the data source issues a first data packet to the data sink that includes the data during the data tenure. In response to determining that the data is not available subsequent to issuing the response, the data source issues a second data packet to the data sink that includes a data header that indicates the data is unavailable.