Need help on memory allocation when developing an extension

Hello to every one, This is my first time to be here and I am doing some work with PHP extensions. I am new to this field and I have one question, please allow me to explain more specifically. Actually I am developing a PHP extension with C++, and it has to read data from a file every time it receives a request. So I wonder if I can put the initialization of that class into the extension's MINIT, including the reading data from file, so that it does not need to open and read file every time it performs its function. The reason why I want to do this is to reduce the IO time and increase its performance. If that is possible, can any one point out the key steps that I should do? If not, can some one give me some advices? Any help is of great appreciation, and thanks in advance~ Regards, Shi Zhuguo