Method and apparatus for dynamic incremental defragmentation of memory
US7519639B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Jan 5, 2004 |
| Grant date | Apr 14, 2009 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Feb 28, 2025 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F12/0269
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A garbage collection process for managing a memory includes a defragmentation cycle. The garbage collection process is interleaved with a running application on a time-based or work-based schedule. The memory is divided into pages which are further divided into blocks falling into one of a number of block size classes. Objects that were not used by applications during the last garbage collection phase are marked. Objects that were used are moved from pages containing the least live objects to pages containing the most live objects. Objects of the largest block size classes are moved first and objects of the smallest block size class are moved last. The garbage collection interval can be selected to satisfy desired CPU utilization or memory overhead requirements.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.