Disclosed is an information processing apparatus that has an update
procedure semaphore, and a generation management information as
management information of a shared data area that requires exclusion
control. The generation management information specifies one item of
generation information of the shared data area. As generation information
provided for every generation, the apparatus has a reference-count
measuring counter, a semaphore for updating generation information, a
pointer for pointing to old generation information, and a pointer for
pointing to the substance of the shared data area. In a case where the
latest shared data is updated, a duplicate of the latest shared data area
is created, new generation information corresponding to the duplicated
shared data area is generated, data in the duplicated shared data area is
updated and generation information, which corresponds to the shared data
area after the updating thereof, is registered as the latest generation
information.