Patent ID: 7395285
Filing Date: 2008-07-01
Classification: G06F,Y10S

Abstract:
1. A garbage collection system for freeing memory areas corresponding to objects that are no longer required in an execution procedure of an object-oriented program including a plurality of threads, the garbage collection system comprising: a selection unit operable to select the threads of the object-oriented program one at a time; an examination unit operable to examine each selected thread, the examination including (i) stopping execution of a selected thread, (ii) finding an object that is accessible from the selected thread by referring to an object pointer of the selected thread, (iii) managing the object found by the finding as a non-freeing target, and (iv) resuming execution of the selected thread; a detection unit operable to, after the selection unit has commenced selecting, (i) detect an object pointer that has been processed as a processing target by a currently-executed thread, and (ii) manage an object identified by the object pointer detected as the processing target, as a non-freeing target; and a freeing unit operable to, after the examination unit has completed examining all of the threads, free memory areas that correspond to objects other than the objects that are managed as non-freeing targets, wherein: