Shared data collections

US9104715B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING, LLC · US

Inventors

• Matthew S. Augustine · Seattle, US
• John R. Burkhardt · Arlington, US
• Brian M. Lambert · North Andover, US
• Raymond E. Ozzie · Seattle, US
• Jason E. Schleifer · Cambridge, US
• Richard Zack Speyer · Boston, US
• Paresh S. Suthar · Redmond, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Jun 23, 2010
• Grant date: Aug 11, 2015
• Expiry date: Mar 2, 2032

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G06Q10/109
• WIPO field: Computer technology
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

A data sharing mechanism may allow programs to share access to data collections. The mechanisms that implement the sharing may allow programs written in any language to read and write a shared collection. The mechanisms may make the shared nature of the collection relatively transparent to the program and to the programmer, by allowing a program to operate on the data more or less as if it were purely local data. The sharing of collections may be managed by a shared object runtime on each machine on which a collection is used, and by a shared object server. The shared object server maintains the true state of the collection, and deterministically resolves collections when programs operate on the same collection without knowledge of each other's operations. The mechanisms by which collections are shared may be implemented so as to be agnostic as to the kind of data in the collection.