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:
Feb. 22, 2011
Filed:
Jul. 20, 2005
Loi K. Lam, Mountain View, CA (US);
Oleg A. Pliss, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Nedim Fresko, San Francisco, CA (US);
Loi K. Lam, Mountain View, CA (US);
Oleg A. Pliss, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Nedim Fresko, San Francisco, CA (US);
Oracle America, Inc., Redwood City, CA (US);
Abstract
A mechanism is disclosed for enabling virtual method dispatch structures (vstructures) to be created on an as-needed basis. When an object class is loaded, a vstructure specific to that object class is not created. Rather, the vstructure for that object class is created only if and when a virtual method of that object class is invoked. By creating vstructures on an as-needed basis, the number of vstructures created during the execution of a program is minimized. This in turn reduces the number of vstructures that need to be updated whenever a reference to a method is changed (for example, as a result of a garbage collection operation). To further optimize the efficiency of the vstructure update process, vstructure entries that point to the same method may be linked. That way, when the reference to a method is changed, all vstructures affected by that change can be quickly identified.