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:
Mar. 19, 2002
Filed:
Jun. 17, 1999
Richard J. Houldsworth, Horley, GB;
U.S. Philips Corporation, New York, NY (US);
Abstract
A data processing apparatus includes a heap memory (HM) containing a plurality of data objects (DO) each accessed by respective pointers originating from programme thread memory stacks (SF). In one embodiment, a garbage collection utility ( ) periodically sweeps the heap (HM) and identifies redundant data objects to a free-list (FL) to enable their memory space to be re-used. System requests for memory (AREQ), if they cannot be met by the free list (FL), are stored (ALLIST) to be handled subsequently. As further data objects are marked redundant during sweeping, the space they occupy is first offered to the stored system requests (ALLIST) before being made generally available through the free-list (FL).