Patent ID: 7653797
Filing Date: 2010-01-26
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A method for garbage collection comprising: a garbage collector using a processor initializing a garbage collection cycle, wherein said garbage collection cycle comprises a mark phase and a sweep phase, wherein said mark phase traverses a complete set of objects in a heap, wherein said heap is associated with a virtual application memory comprising a primary memory and a secondary memory, wherein the virtual application memory is managed by a virtual memory manager, which moves pages between the primary memory and the secondary memory; communicating information bidirectionally between the garbage collector and the virtual memory manager; and altering a default order in which the objects are evaluated during the mark phase to minimize paging activity, wherein the altering of the order is based at least in part upon information obtained from the virtual memory manager; wherein a marking of objects in the heap that are not associated with pages in the primary memory is deferred until the associated pages are placed in primary memory, wherein a page load request is submitted each time a marking of an object is deferred, wherein objects that are associated with pages in primary memory are marked while objects that are not associated with pages in primary memory are deferred.