Patent ID: 7865671

Claim:
A method, comprising: using a computer to perform: associating a respective tagged id location with each of a plurality of locations targeted by a multiple target synchronization operation, wherein one of the plurality of locations is a location to be modified by the multiple target synchronization operation; displacing an application value stored in the to-be-modified one of the targeted locations, wherein said displacing comprises: storing a first tagged id distinguishable from the application value in the to-be-modified one of the targeted locations and in the tagged id location associated with the to-be-modified one of the targeted locations, and storing the displaced application value in an auxiliary location associated with the first tagged id; repeatedly collecting (i) application values associated with each of the targeted locations other than the to-be-modified one and (ii) tagged ids stored in of the associated tagged id locations, the collecting continuing until one of the collections indicates no change in the respective collected values and respective collected tagged ids since an immediately preceding one of the collections; and subsequent to determining that one of the collections indicates no change in the respective collected values and respective collected tagged ids since the immediately preceding one of the collected tagged ids: modifying, at most, the to-be-modified one of the targeted locations, wherein said modifying comprises updating the to-be-modified one of the targeted locations only if the first tagged id remains stored in the to-be-modified one of the targeted locations.