Patent ID: 7120651

Claim:
A method for managing data, the method comprising the steps of: allocating a plurality of partitions of a shared cache, wherein said plurality of partitions include a partition in each of a set of two or more nodes of a multiple node system; establishing a mapping between the plurality of partitions and a plurality of data items; and in response to a request for a particular data item by a first node of said multiple node system, performing the steps of determining which partition of said plurality of partitions corresponds to the particular data item based on said mapping; determining whether the particular data item currently resides in said corresponding partition; if the particular data item does not currently reside in said corresponding partition, then loading a copy of the particular data item into the corresponding partition; and providing the particular data item from the corresponding partition to the first node; wherein a dirty version of the particular data item resides in a second node of the multiple node system; and wherein the step of loading a copy of the particular data item into the corresponding partition includes loading the dirty version of the particular data item from the second node into the corresponding partition.