  We consider the dictionary problem in external memory and improve the update
time of the well-known buffer tree by roughly a logarithmic factor. For any
\lambda >= max {lg lg n, log_{M/B} (n/B)}, we can support updates in time
O(\lambda / B) and queries in sublogarithmic time, O(log_\lambda n). We also
present a lower bound in the cell-probe model showing that our data structure
is optimal.
  In the RAM, hash tables have been used to solve the dictionary problem faster
than binary search for more than half a century. By contrast, our data
structure is the first to beat the comparison barrier in external memory. Ours
is also the first data structure to depart convincingly from the indivisibility
paradigm.
