Abstract: An updating and reference management system with an area management unit and a timing unit for a shared memory. Processes access the shared memory in an identical time frame, determined by the timing unit, such that update or reference requests by the processes for the shared memory are held by the area management unit in each time interval between control signals generated by the timing unit. The update or reference requests are executed at the time of each control signal. Processing objects manage the update or reference requests for respective portions of the shared memory. The managing objects for the shared memory also pre-process potentially conflicting update requests to the same portions of the shared memory such that the shared memory is updated with different data, determined to be appropriate by the respective managing object.