Method for efficient support for reference counting

Boots – shoes – and leggings

Patent

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

G06F 1202

Patent

active

046959491

ABSTRACT:
A method and apparatus for managing a block oriented memory of the type in which each memory block has an associated reference count representing the number of pointers to it from other memory blocks and itself. Efficient and cost-effective implementation of reference counting alleviates the need for frequent garbage collection, which is an expensive operation. The apparatus includes a hash table into which the virtual addresses of blocks of memory which equal zero are maintained. When the reference count of a block increases from zero, its virtual address is removed from the table. When the reference count of a block decreases to zero, its virtual address is inserted into the table. When the table is full, a reconciliation operation is performed to identify those addresses which are contained in a set of binding registers associated with the CPU, and any address not contained in the binding registers are evacuated into a garbage buffer for subsequent garbage collection operations. The apparatus can be implemented by a cache augmented by the hash table, providing a back-up store for the cache.

REFERENCES:
patent: 4131949 (1978-12-01), Fletcher et al.
patent: 4149240 (1979-04-01), Misunas et al.
patent: 4447875 (1984-05-01), Bolton et al.
patent: 4502118 (1985-02-01), Hagenmaier
patent: 4510565 (1985-04-01), Dummermuth
Knuth, "Fundamental Algorithms", vol. 1, Second Edition, Addison Wesley, 1973, pp. 412-413.

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for the USA inventors and patents. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

Method for efficient support for reference counting does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.

If you have personal experience with Method for efficient support for reference counting, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Method for efficient support for reference counting will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2063063

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.