Monitoring writes using thread-local write barrier buffers and soft synchronization

US8280866B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• Clausal Computing Oy · FI

Inventors

• Tatu J. Ylonen · Espoo, FI
• Tero Mononen · Helsinki, FI

Key dates

• Filing date: May 5, 2010
• Grant date: Oct 2, 2012
• Expiry date: Aug 12, 2030

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G06F12/0253
• WIPO field: Computer technology
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

During garbage collection, writes to objects being copied (relocated) are monitored (tracked) using a write barrier that uses a thread-local write barrier buffer. In the preferred embodiment, soft synchronization is used for reading the thread-local write barrier buffers. In response to detecting a write to an object, the object may be re-copied, the copying may be made to fail, the write may be propagated to another copy of the object, or, e.g., another node in a distributed system may be notified of the write.