Patent ID: RE40989

Claim:
A computerized method for performing one or more atomic operations on a data entity of arbitrary size and characterized by version data, the method comprising the following steps: in a first thread of execution: acquiring exclusive access to the version data; setting the version data to a first value indicating that the data entity is invalid and not accessible by other operations; modifying the data entity; updating the version data to a second value indicating that the data entity is valid and accessible; and terminating exclusive access to the version data; in a second thread of execution, the second thread executing concurrently with the first thread of execution: (a) reading the first value of the version data; (b) if the first value is determined to be an invalid value the version data has a value indicating that the data entry is invalid , repeating steps (a) and (b); and (c) upon completion of step (b), reading the data entity.