Patent ID: 6049810
Filing Date: 2000-04-11
Classification: G06F,Y10S

Abstract:
A computer controlled method for using a card vector containing card markers, said card vector being divided into a plurality of sections, each of said plurality of sections containing a plurality of card markers, each of said plurality of card markers indicating whether a corresponding card in a heap has been modified, whereby said method comprises steps of:(a) associating section information with each of said plurality of sections, said section information including information specifying whether the corresponding section of the card vector has been modified, thereby allowing a garbage collection process to look at the section information to determine whether any of the card markers in the corresponding section has been modified without scanning through all card markers in the corresponding section;(b) write-protecting a first section of said card vector by modifying section information associated with said first section to indicate that said first section is read only;(c) detecting an attempted write-operation to said first section of said card vector;(d) completing said attempted write-operation to said first section of said card vector; and(e) marking said section information associated with said first section to indicate that said first section is read-write.