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:
Sep. 11, 2001
Filed:
Oct. 07, 1998
Elliot K. Kolodner, Haifa, IL;
Ethan Lewis, Haifa, IL;
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A computer-implemented method for eliminating synchronization between sweep and allocate in respect of a newly created object in a concurrent garbage collector for a heap implemented in shared memory having mark and sweep phases. In a first collection cycle, a first attribute is associated with objects believed to be reachable and a second attribute is associated with objects believed to be unreachable, whilst for each successive collection cycle, the roles of the first and second attributes are exchanged. In accordance with conventional mark-sweep garbage collectors, the attribute is a color: usually Black and White for objects which are believed to be reachable and unreachable, respectively. Exchanging the colors for each collection cycle eliminates the overhead in synchronizing the color marking of a new object depending on whether it is located in an area of the heap that has already been swept or has yet to be swept.