System and method for ensuring non-interfering garbage collection in a real time multi-threaded environment

Abstract

A system and method for ensuring non-interfering garbage collection in a real time multi-threaded environment. An incarnation counter is associated with a scoped memory area. The incarnation counter is atomically updated upon access by a no heap thread not interruptible by garbage collection operations. A write stub is identified and includes instructions to store data into storage locations of the scoped memory area. The instructions are dynamically modified to interrupt execution of a garbage collection thread. A garbage collection thread is executed over the scoped memory area. At least one of a read from the scoped memory area and a write to the scoped memory area are attempted. For the read attempt, an incarnation number is read from the incarnation counter of the scoped memory area and is locally stored. A value from a storage location in the scoped memory area is loaded and the incarnation number is reread. The reread incarnation number is compared with the locally stored incarnation number. The garbage collection thread is interrupted when the reread and locally stored incarnation numbers fail to match. For the write attempt, the instructions in the write stub are executed. The instructions include one of storing data into one such location in the scoped memory area and interrupting execution of the garbage collection thread.