We present a new approach to parallel copying garbage collection on symmetric multiprocessor (SMP) machines appropriate for Java and other object-oriented languages. Parallel, in this setting, means that the collector runs in several parallel threads. Our collector is based on a new idea called delayed allocation, which completely eliminates the fragmentation problem of previous parallel copying collectors while still keeping low synchronization, high efficiency and simplicity of collection. In addition to this main idea, we also discuss several other ideas such as improving termination detection, balancing the distribution of work, and dealing with contention during work distribution.
By: Erez Petrank, Elliot K. Kolodner
Published in: H-0207 in 2003
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