Patent ID: 8447793

Claim:
A method for efficiently implementing a remembered set in a region-based garbage collector, the method comprising: maintaining, for each region in an object heap, a remembered set card list (RSCL), the RSCL containing a list of cards from a card table, wherein each card in the RSCL identifies an area in the object heap that contains at least one object referencing an object in the region associated with the RSCL; establishing a collection set, the collection set identifying a subset of regions in the object heap on which to perform partial garbage collection; flushing cards from the RSCLs associated with the collection set to the card table, wherein flushing a card to the card table comprises dirtying the card in the card table; discarding cards that are about to be rebuilt from all the RSCLs; globally cleaning the card table, wherein globally cleaning the card table comprises flushing dirty cards from the card table to the RSCLs; and adding cards to the RSCLs for inter-region references discovered while traversing live objects in the collection set.