Patent ID: 7287049

Claim:
For performing garbage collection for a mutator executing on a computer system, a method comprising: A) providing a minimum mutator utilization (MMU) specification that dictates an MMU-specification time-slice duration and a maximum collection duration; B) maintaining a utilization log by recording, in response to computer-system usage, information from which amounts of system usage by the mutator and a garbage collector can be determined; C) employing the utilization log to make an assessment of a candidate garbage-collection interval's compliance with the MMU specification, wherein making the assessment of the candidate garbage-collection interval's compliance comprises: defining a test time slice, associated with that candidate garbage-collection interval, that lasts for the MMU-specification time-slice duration and ends with the end of the candidate garbage-collection interval; and determining, by combining the candidate garbage-collection interval's duration with the durations that the utilization log indicates for garbage-collection operations that have occurred during the test time slice and comparing the result with the maximum collection duration, whether the durations of garbage-collection operations that fall within the test time slice exceed the maximum collection duration; D) scheduling garbage-collection operations in accordance with that assessment; and E) reclaiming memory of the computer system for reuse by executing scheduled garbage-collection operations.