"Application" variables

Hi there. I have written a messageboard in PHP and, using tables and images, draw out all the threads for a given topic. However, the recursive function calls (and therefore exponential database queries) take alot of processor cycles, etc. I have also implemented this board in Cold Fusion which is where I first noticed the slowdown. SO...instead of doing n queries, i am doing 1 query where I retreive all of the messsages and store them into two CF "structs" (basically just associative arrays) and store them in Application variables. I am not sure how global a term that is, but basically its just memory that is persistant not across a given request or session, but across the application, so that multiple clients share the same data. I guess my question is (finally) is there a similar metaphor in PHP that will allow me to store this information in memory and make it accessible serverwide rather than just session-wide? Sean