Patent · US Expired

System amd method for distributed object resource management

US5765174A · kind A · utility

56Cited by
6References
15Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventor

Key dates

Filing dateOct 6, 1995
Grant dateJun 9, 1998
Priority date
Expiry dateOct 6, 2015

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC Y)Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
  • CPC primaryY10S707/99957
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A distributed object oriented computer system that has two classes of object references: strong references and weak references. Weak references (or pointers) allow users to refer to an object, but does not prevent the object manager from deleting the object. A weak object reference can be converted into a strong object reference by execution of a "MakeStrong" operation, which generates a strong reference, and then deleting the weak reference. A strong object reference can be converted into a weak object reference by execution of a "MakeWeak" operation, which returns a weak reference to the object referred to in the operation's argument, and then deleting the strong reference. When an object no longer has any outstanding strong object references, deletion of the object is enabled. In another aspect of the invention, a portion of the computer's memory is set aside for a primary linker cache and a secondary linker image cache. Linker images, generated while loading programs for execution, are stored in the primary and secondary linker caches. Each linker image in the primary linker cache has strong object references to objects included in corresponding ones of the loaded programs, and…

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