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. 07, 2006
Filed:
Oct. 17, 2002
Geoffrey Owen Blandy, Austin, TX (US);
Robert Tod Dimpsey, Austin, TX (US);
Kean G. Kuiper, Round Rock, TX (US);
Matthew Francis Peters, Hants, GB;
Geoffrey Owen Blandy, Austin, TX (US);
Robert Tod Dimpsey, Austin, TX (US);
Kean G. Kuiper, Round Rock, TX (US);
Matthew Francis Peters, Hants, GB;
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A system and method for incrementally compacting a computer system heap is presented. A heap, such as a garbage-collected heap in a Java environment, is divided into logical regions. When the heap is becoming fragmented, an incremental compaction cycle is commenced. During a first time period, the first region of the heap is compacted, with subsequent regions being compacted during subsequent time periods. A time period commences when a garbage collection event occurs. In a multiprocessor environment the regions can be divided into a number of sections which are each compacted using a different processor. One or more break tables are constructed indicating how far contiguous groups of moveable objects should be moved to better group objects and eliminate interspersed free spaces. References throughout the heap that point to objects within the compacted region are then adjusted so that the references point to the new object locations.