Navigation system with distributed computing architecture

A method of operation for a navigation system comprising:

• on a server, receiving a request for geographic data from a client computing platform;
• determining which pre-computed parcels of geographic data stored with said server to send to the client computing platform to respond to said request, wherein each of the pre-computed parcels of geographic data in a collection thereof corresponds to a separate one of a plurality of geographic sub-areas into which a geographic region is divided;
• and
• sending the pre-computed parcels of geographic data that had been determined to the client computing platform.

An architecture for a navigation system comprising:

• a server;
• client computing platforms;
• a network over which said client computing platforms and said server can communicate with each other;
• a geographic database associated with said server;
• a geographic data repository associated with said server and containing pre-computed parcels of geographic data, wherein each parcel in a collection represents geographic features located in a separate one of a plurality of geographic sub-areas into which a geographic region is divided;
• and
• a geographic data providing application on the server that determines which of said pre-computed parcels of geographic data to send to each of said client computing platforms in response to requests therefrom for geographic data.

A method of managing memory resources in a client computing platform comprising the steps of:

• receiving uniform-sized predetermined parcels of data from a server,
• wherein each uniform-sized predetermined parcel of data contains data that represent geographic features located within a separate respective one of a plurality of sub-areas into which a geographic region is divided;
• and
• storing said uniform-sized predetermined parcels of data in corresponding-sized portions of a cache memory in said client computing platform.