Patent · US Expired

Garbage collector with eager read barrier

US7747659B2 · kind B2 · utility

34Cited by
12References
5Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJan 5, 2004
Grant dateJun 29, 2010
Priority date
Expiry dateMar 25, 2026

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F12/0253
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A garbage collection system that needs to meet real-time requirements uses an eager read barrier that performs a forwarding operation as soon as a quantity is loaded. The barrier maintains a to-space invariant by including a forwarding pointer in the header of objects to be moved or accessed that normally points to the object itself. However, if the object has been moved, the forwarding pointer points to the new object location. The eager read barrier maintains the registers and stack cells such that the registers and stack cells always point into to-space. Barrier-sinking and common sub-expression elimination are used to minimize the overhead associated with the read barrier.

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