Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Alan G Bishop

Nedim Fresko

Graham Hamilton

Peter W Madany

Dean R Long

A system is provided for rebooting a computer having a volatile memory device capable of storing operating information. The system reboots the computer using the operating information stored in the memory device if the memory device contains a valid copy of the operating information. The computer reboots the computer by reloading the operating information into the memory device if the memory device does not contain a valid copy of the operating information. The system determines whether the memory device contains a valid copy of the operating information by calculating a checksum for the operating information stored in the memory device and compares the checksum to a previously calculated checksum.

Method and apparatus for initializing a device

A method, apparatus, and software for efficiently allocating discontiguous stack space without requiring compiler changes are described. In one aspect, a method is provided for executing a compiled function that is located in a first computer memory stack chunk such that additional memory is allocated efficiently if a determination is made that such additional memory is necessary for execution of the compiled function. In one embodiment, the method includes calling a stack checking function that includes the compiled function. A determination is made if additional memory is required for executing the compiled function. If no additional memory is required, then the compiled function is called and executed. However, if additional memory is necessary, then additional memory is allocated that is discontiguous with the original memory stack.

Method and apparatus for dynamically sizing non-contiguous runtime stacks

A distributed object oriented computer system that has two classes of object references: strong references and weak references. Weak references (or pointers) allow users to refer to an object, but does not prevent the object manager from deleting the object. A weak object reference can be converted into a strong object reference by execution of a 'MakeStrong' operation, which generates a strong reference, and then deleting the weak reference. A strong object reference can be converted into a weak object reference by execution of a 'MakeWeak' operation, which returns a weak reference to the object referred to in the operation's argument, and then deleting the strong reference. When an object no longer has any outstanding strong object references, deletion of the object is enabled. In another aspect of the invention, a portion of the computer's memory is set aside for a primary linker cache and a secondary linker image cache. Linker images, generated while loading programs for execution, are stored in the primary and secondary linker caches. Each linker image in the primary linker cache has strong object references to objects included in corresponding ones of the loaded programs, and each linker image in the secondary linker cache has weak object references to objects included in corresponding ones of the loaded programs.

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Campbell, CA, United States of America

Alan G Bishop