Techniques for transferring data between multiple processing entities are described. A processing entity, such as a process or thread, transfers a first data structure to another processing entity. The first data structure represents a first amount of memory and references a second data structure of a similar type. The second data structure represents a second amount of memory. The second data structure contains a pointer to a block of memory. The second amount of memory includes at least a portion of the block of memory. The first amount of memory includes at least a portion of the block of memory. The transfer is performed without having to copy any portion of the block of memory.