Patent ID: 7761485

Claim:
A method, comprising: storing data records in a database distributed across a plurality of processing nodes, each of the plurality of processing nodes including: a plurality of client processes; a different respective process memory region for each of the plurality of client processes of the processing node; and a shared memory region external to the process memory regions and shared by the plurality of client processes, wherein storing the data records includes storing the data records in the shared memory regions of the plurality of processing nodes; changing a first data record stored in one of the shared memory regions by a first client process; updating an event ordered list maintained in the one of the shared memory regions in response to changing the first data record, wherein the event ordered list represents an order of changes to the data records in the shared memory regions; incrementing a shared version number used to number elements in the event ordered list; and for each of the plurality of processing nodes: linking the plurality of client processes to the database; and storing a different respective data structure in each respective process memory region for the plurality of client processes of the processing node, wherein each stored data structure organizes links to one or more of the stored data records, wherein the links determine a scope for the respective client process, and wherein the scope defines to which of the stored data records the respective client process has access.