Patent · US Expired

Transparent local and distributed memory management system

US6304884A · kind A · utility

15Cited by
11References
36Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateFeb 14, 2000
Grant dateOct 16, 2001
Priority date
Expiry dateFeb 14, 2020

Classification

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

Abstract

The present invention discloses a system for transparent local and distributed memory management. The invention overcomes the prior art's requirement of keeping track of whether a memory space allocated to a new object or a new program or data structure can be reclaimed. According to the present invention an autorelease pool is created at the beginning of a new duty cycle. The autorelease pool retains the newly allocated memory space during the duty cycle. The autorelease pool is automatically disposed of at the end of the duty cycle. As a result of disposing the autorelease pool, the newly allocated memory space is reclaimed (i.e., deallocated). The present invention is useful in distributed networks where different programming conventions on remote and local machines made the prior art's memory management task particularly difficult. The present invention is also useful in an object-oriented programming environment.

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