Patent ID: 7302515
Filing Date: 2007-11-27
Classification: G06F,Y10S

Abstract:
1. A computer system configured by machine instructions to operate as a virtual machine that responds to virtual-machine code, which virtual-machine code defines a mutator that dynamically allocates memory in a heap to data objects and writes in reference fields references to such objects, by: A) executing a garbage collector that: wherein V(cs) is a cost of collecting a collection set Cs, V fixed is a fixed cost common to all collection pauses, U is an average collection cost per collection set entry, d is a number of remembered-set-log-buffer entries, S is a cost per entry of scanning a remembered set, rsSize(r) is a number of entries in a remembered set for a region r, C is a cost per byte of evacuating and a number of entries in a remembered set for a region r, C is a cost per byte of evacuating and scanning a live object, and liveBytes(r) is an estimate of how many live bytes the region r contains; and B) so executing the mutator that, in at least some situations in which the mutator writes a reference into a reference field in the heap, the mutator: