Patent ID: 8176286

Claim:
A method of controlling execution of a processing task within a data processing system, said method comprising the steps of: executing said processing task including allocating memory areas for data storage; and suspending an actual execution path of said processing task at an execution point to perform memory management, said memory management comprising the steps of: identifying at least one data item roots occurring in the course of execution and accessible to said processing task at said execution point which specify reference values pointing to respective ones of said memory areas; determining a correlation between reference values corresponding to said at least one data item roots and memory areas allocated during said execution up to said execution point by identifying at least one data item reachable from said at least one data item roots; performing a memory management operation on allocated memory areas in dependence upon said correlation; wherein said identifying step comprises: identifying a possible execution path leading to said execution point, wherein said possible execution path may be different from said actual execution path; performing a simulated execution of said possible execution path; and wherein said at least one data item roots and said at least one data item accessible to said processing task are identified by following said possible execution path to said current execution point.