One of the demos I showed this week was the integration of the new SharePoint 2010 client object model (SP COM) and an external list. The SP COM is a way to work with lists where you create and execute batch commands against your SharePoint 2010 server. You can find more information here: http://channel9.msdn.com/learn/courses/SharePoint2010Developer/ClientObjectModel/ .
Read the rest here:
Reading Data from External List using the SharePoint 2010 Client Object model