Abstract: A reflective mask blank for EUV lithography includes a substrate and, formed on or above the substrate in the following order, a reflective layer for reflecting EUV light, a protective layer for the reflective layer, an absorption layer for absorbing EUV light, and a hard mask layer. The protective layer contains ruthenium (Ru), the absorption layer contains tantalum (Ta), the hard mask layer contains chromium (Cr) and at least one of nitrogen (N) and oxygen (O), and the hard mask layer has a film density of from 3.00 g/cm3 to 5.40 g/cm3.

Abstract: A data management apparatus, according to a request of an application program, lends a pointer for reading out a data from a data field stored a plurality of data. An address of the data field corresponding to the lent pointer is stored a lending pointer table. When the application program accesses a data stored in the data field, the data management apparatus receives the pointer from the application program, reads out an address corresponding to the received pointer from the lending pointer table, and reads out the data corresponding to the read address from the data field. The read data is given to the application program.