Long Running scripts

[eluser]Haydenzone[/eluser]
Essentially, I have a long running PHP script that, if executed from the browser, causes it to hang. There is no data coming from this script that is useful to the client(after a certain point), so I'm hoping to be able to sever ties with the browser, so the server can get down to business on the rest of the script.

I was wondering if there was a way to achieve this within the CodeIgniter framework?

If not, what would be my best option for tackling this can of worms?

Thanks in advance!!

[eluser]Haydenzone[/eluser]
Carmageddon, thanks for your help, but I feel like there should be a more efficient way to do this... Using IPC would, I believe, require me to serialize all my data then "pass" it to my second process, then unserialize. I already have all my data loaded into memory with the current script.

So, would it be correct in saying, that there are no means in the CI framework to "sever" the connection which the client, and continue processing in the background?

Thanks