Patent ID: 8140600

Claim:
A memory power control method for controlling memory power consumption, the method being used in a computer which (i) includes a memory having a power saving mode and (ii) performs, by a garbage collection unit, a garbage collection for collecting no-longer-needed objects in groups, said no-longer-needed objects being allocated to memory blocks obtained by dividing a memory's address space by a predetermined constant size, the method comprising the steps of: dividing, by a dividing unit, a heap area of the memory into a plurality of sub-heap areas; managing, by a managing unit, the sub-heap areas; changing, by a changing unit, the number of the sub-heap areas used for said garbage collection based on a magnitude correlation between a required time for the garbage collection and a predefined target value; identifying, by an identification unit, living objects and said living object's class according to an access profile which contains information regarding access to said objects, wherein living objects are objects which are accessed for more than a predefined period; bringing, by a bringing unit, the living objects together into a predetermined sub-heap area while performing the garbage collection; moving, by a moving unit, objects to an old heap area, that are living even after performing minor garbage collection more than a predetermined number of rounds wherein said garbage collection is generational garbage collection; dividing, by a dividing unit, said heap area into a young heap area and an old heap area; allocating, by an allocation unit, said objects to the young heap area; and performing, by a garbage collection unit, minor garbage collection when the young heap area is entirely exhausted, wherein minor garbage collection is garbage collection performed only on the young heap area; performing, by a garbage collection unit, full garbage collection when the old heap area is entirely exhausted, wherein full garbage collection is garbage collection performed on the entire heap; and bringing the living objects existing in the old heap area together into a predetermined sub-heap area of the old heap area when performing the full garbage collection.