Patent ID: 6738977
Filing Date: 2004-05-18
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
A method of operating a system including first and second virtual machines and having a shared memory accessible to both said first and second virtual machines, the method comprising the steps of:loading a class within the first virtual machine into said shared memory, said class having sharable and non-sharable data associated therewith; loading the class into the second virtual machine by locating the class within said shared memory; forming a mirror of the class within a private memory in the second virtual machine; and utilising the class in the second virtual machine on the basis of the sharable data from the shared memory of the first virtual machine, and the non-sharable data from the private memory of the second virtual machine; wherein said step of loading the class into the second virtual machine includes updating a class loader cache in the second virtual machine; and wherein said first and second virtual machines both include a hierarchy of class loaders, at least one of which is a shared class loader, wherein each shared class loader in the class loader hierarchy in second virtual machine has a corresponding shared class loader in the equivalent position in the class loader hierarchy in the first virtual machine.