Patent ID: 8291187

Claim:
A method, in a data processing system, of memory management in a scoped memory system of the data processing system, the scoped memory system including a scoped memory area for the allocation of objects therein for access by one or more software threads in execution, the method comprising: identifying, by a scoped memory garbage collector of the data processing system, a set of root references for objects allocated in the scoped memory area of the scoped memory system; recursively traversing and marking, by the scoped memory garbage collector, objects that are referenced from the set of root references and that are allocated in the scoped memory area of the scoped memory system; identifying, by the scoped memory garbage collector, objects in the scoped memory area of the scoped memory system that are not so marked; and discarding the identified objects from the scoped memory system, wherein identifying a set of root references further comprises causing the one or more software threads to enter a suspend state in which the execution of the software threads is temporarily stopped, and wherein identifying all objects further comprises causing the one or more software threads to leave the suspend state.