Patent ID: 7000071

Claim:
A method for virtual enlargement of a data structure of a volatile read-write memory on a portable data carrier that is organized as a stack, wherein a fill parameter describing a fill state for the stack is detected and monitored by comparison with a predetermined limiting value (GW), and a part of the data structure is swapped out to a further storage medium located on the data carrier as soon as a predetermined relation between the limiting value (GW) and fill parameter is reached, the further storage medium being a nonvolatile read-write memory, the method comprising the steps: a) segmenting the stack into at least two stack segments; b) effecting swapping of the segments to the further storage medium segment-by-segment; c) swapping in a stack segment swapped out in step b) to the stack as soon as a predetermined relation between said fill parameter and a predetermined second limiting value is reached; d) managing a destination address of each stack segment swapped out to the nonvolatile read-write memory in a register in the volatile read-write memory, the destination address being incremented by an integral multiple of the segment size with each newly swapped out stack segment and decremented by an integral multiple of the segment size with each stack segment swapped back to the stack.