The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Apr. 25, 2000
Filed:
Jul. 11, 1997
Michael Spertus, Chicago, IL (US);
Gustavo Rodriguez-Rivera, West Lafayette, IN (US);
Charles Fitterman, Deerfield, IL (US);
Geodesic Systems, Inc., Chicago, IL (US);
Abstract
An incremental garbage collector which permits a memory allocator's decommit mechanism to operate while the garbage collector is detecting memory that a program being executed is certainly not using. The garbage collector includes a decommit barrier which prevents the garbage collector from referencing memory that the allocator has decommitted from the address space of the process on which the program is executing. In mark-sweep incremental garbage collectors, the decommit barrier may be implemented in two ways: by means of a table which the allocator marks whenever it determines that a portion of memory is subject to being decommitted from the process's address space and which the garbage collector examines before scanning the portion and by means of a table which the garbage collector marks when it finds that a portion of memory must be scanned and which the allocator examines before decommitting the portion. The decommit barrier may further be implemented as a response to the fault that occurs when the garbage collector attempts to reference a portion of memory that has been decommitted.