Apparatus and method for fast filtering read and write barrier o

Details Apparatus and method for fast filtering read and write barrier o Apparatus and method for fast filtering read and write barrier o

1997-04-23

1999-07-27

Black, Thomas G.

Data processing: database and file management or data structures

Database design

Data structure types

G06F 1730

Patent

active

059308079

ABSTRACT:
In a computer system that utilizes write or read barriers to perform a garbage collection function, instruction execution logic avoids unnecessary calls to the write or read barrier procedure. Each object's header includes a State flag. Each object reference also includes a State flag. Each time an instruction that is the subject of a write or read barrier (e.g., a object reference write instruction) is executed, the State flag of the object reference being processed is inspected by the instruction execution logic. If the State flag in the object reference is set, the write or read barrier procedure is not invoked, because the target object has already been processed by a previous call to the write or read barrier procedure. Otherwise the write or read barrier procedure is invoked. The write or read barrier procedure first checks the State flag in the target object's header. If it is set, the State flag in the target object reference is set and then the procedure exits. Otherwise, if the State flag in the target object header is not set, a predefined garbage collection function is performed and then the State flag in the target object's header and the State flag in the target object's reference are both set. In some embodiments the setting of the State flags is conditional on the outcome of the garbage collection operation performed by the write or read barrier procedure.

REFERENCES:
patent: 4757438 (1988-07-01), Thatte et al.
patent: 4907151 (1990-03-01), Bartlett
patent: 4920483 (1990-04-01), Pogue et al.
patent: 4961134 (1990-10-01), Crus et al.
patent: 5088036 (1992-02-01), Ellis et al.
patent: 5222221 (1993-06-01), Houri et al.
patent: 5283878 (1994-02-01), Murray
patent: 5293614 (1994-03-01), Ferguson et al.
patent: 5301288 (1994-04-01), Newman et al.
patent: 5355483 (1994-10-01), Serlet
patent: 5408650 (1995-04-01), Arsenault
patent: 5418921 (1995-05-01), Cortney et al.
patent: 5446901 (1995-08-01), Owicki et al.
patent: 5535329 (1996-07-01), Hastings
patent: 5560003 (1996-09-01), Nilsen et al.
patent: 5561786 (1996-10-01), Morse
patent: 5566321 (1996-10-01), Pase et al.
patent: 5761670 (1998-06-01), Joy
patent: 5845298 (1998-12-01), O'Connor et al.
patent: 5848423 (1998-12-01), Ebrahim et al.
Moon, David A., "Garbage Collection in a Large Lisp System", ACM (1984), pp. 235-246.
Aho, Alfred V., et al., "Compilers Principles Techniques, and Tools", Addison-Wesley, Mar. 1988, Ch. 10, pp. 585-586, 592-599, 605-607.
Karen, et al., "Garbage Collection for Prolog Based on WAM", Communications of the ACM, vol. 31, Issue 6 (Jun. 1, 1988).
Courts, Robert, "Improving Locality of Reference in a Garbage-Collecting Memory Management System", Communications of the ACM, Vo. 31, No. 9 (1988), pp. 1128-1138.
Grehan, Rick, "Hands On, Some Assembly Required; If Memory Serves . . . ", Byte (Aug. 1989), pp. 279-280, 282, 284, 337.
Grehan, Rick, "Hands On, Some Assembly Required;Virtually Virtual Memory", Byte (Sep. 1990), pp. 455-456, 458, 460, 462, 464.
Kuechlin, Wolfgang W., "On Multi-Threaded List-Processing and Garbage Collection", IEEE (1991), pp. 894-897.
Booch, Grady, "Object Oriented Design with Applications", Benjamin/Cummings (1991).
Imai, Akira, et al., "Evaluation of Parallel Copying Garbage Collection on a Shared-Memory Multiprocessor", IEEE (1993), pp. 1030-1040.
Holzle, Urs, et al., "A Fast Write Barrier for Generational Garbage Collectors", OOPSLA '93 Garbage Collection Workshop (Oct. 1993).
Bott, Ed, Windows; Windows' Invisible Wall: The 64K Barrier, System Resources are the Hidden Memory Limit that Microsoft Forgot:, PCContact (Mar. 1994), pp. 210, 212.
Shaw, Richard Hale, "An Introduction to the Win32 API", PC Magazine vol. 13, No. 8, pp. 291-295.
Barrett, David A., "Improving the Performance of Conservative Generational Garbage Collection", 1995 Thesis.
Wilson, Paul R., et al., "Dynamic Storage Allocation: A Survey and Critical Review", University of Texas at Austin, 1995.
Jones, Richard et al., "Garbage Collection, Algorithms for Automatic Dynamic Memory Management", John Wiley & Sons (1996).
Gadbois, David et al., "GC FAQ", http://www.centerline.com/people/chase/GC/GC-faq.html (Jan. 6, 1997).
Caro, Alejandro, "A Novel 64 Bit Data Representation for Garbage Collection and Synchronizing Memory", Computation Structures Group Memo 396 (Apr. 9, 1997).
Harbaugh, Sam et al., "HeapGuard.TM., Eliminating Garbage Collection in Real-Time Ada Systems", Integrated Software, Inc., pp. 704-708.
Wallace, David Vinayak et al., "Simple Garbage Collection in G++", Draft, Rev. 1.1.
Jones, Richard et al., "Garbage Collection, Algorithms for Automatic Dynamic Memory Management", John Wiley & Sons, Chs. 6, 7 and 8.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

Rating

Apparatus and method for fast filtering read and write barrier o does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.

If you have personal experience with Apparatus and method for fast filtering read and write barrier o, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Apparatus and method for fast filtering read and write barrier o will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-893103