Patent ID: 6453463
Filing Date: 2002-09-17
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
A method for marking objects defined within an object-oriented programming system to keep track of accesses to fields within objects, wherein the method operates in a system that supports space and time dimensional execution, the system having a head thread that executes program instructions and a speculative thread that executes program instructions in advance of the head thread, the head thread accessing a primary version of the object and the speculative thread accessing a space-time dimensioned version of the object, comprising:receiving a reference to a field within an object; identifying a marking bit within the object that is associated with the field, each marking bit within the object being associated with a different subset of fields within the object; setting the marking bit, wherein setting the marking bit indicates that at least one field within the associated subset of fields has been referenced; and performing the reference to the field within the object; wherein the steps of identifying the marking bit and setting the marking bit take place for a read operation by the speculative thread.