Patent · US Expired

Apparatus and method removing increment/decrement pairs to decimate a block reference stream

US4716524A · kind A · utility

15Cited by
1References
32Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateApr 4, 1985
Grant dateDec 29, 1987
Priority date
Expiry dateApr 4, 2005

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F12/0261
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A reference count decimator and method of operating a computer system includes a decimator queue for containing indications of pointer reference count increments. Apparatus is provided for determining if a referencing event would cause a decrement of a reference count, and for searching the decimator queue to determine if a counterpart of the reference event exists in the queue, to thereby define an increment/decrement pair. If an increment/decrement pair is determined to exist in the queue, the increment/decrement pair is cancelled from the queue so that the increment/decrement point reference pairs are removed from the computer system without actually modifying the reference count indications associated with the memory blocks.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.