Article

Correctness-preserving derivation of concurrent garbage collection algorithms

Authors:

Martin T. Vechev,

David F. BaconAuthors Info & Claims

PLDI '06: Proceedings of the 27th ACM SIGPLAN Conference on Programming Language Design and Implementation

Pages 341 - 353

https://doi.org/10.1145/1133981.1134022

Published: 11 June 2006 Publication History

Abstract

Constructing correct concurrent garbage collection algorithms is notoriously hard. Numerous such algorithms have been proposed, implemented, and deployed - and yet the relationship among them in terms of speed and precision is poorly understood, and the validation of one algorithm does not carry over to others.As programs with low latency requirements written in garbagecollected languages become part of society's mission-critical infrastructure, it is imperative that we raise the level of confidence in the correctness of the underlying system, and that we understand the trade-offs inherent in our algorithmic choice.In this paper we present correctness-preserving transformations that can be applied to an initial abstract concurrent garbage collection algorithm which is simpler, more precise, and easier to prove correct than algorithms used in practice--but also more expensive and with less concurrency. We then show how both pre-existing and new algorithms can be synthesized from the abstract algorithm by a series of our transformations. We relate the algorithms formally using a new definition of precision, and informally with respect to overhead and concurrency.This provides many insights about the nature of concurrent collection, allows the direct synthesis of new and useful algorithms, reduces the burden of proof to a single simple algorithm, and lays the groundwork for the automated synthesis of correct concurrent collectors.

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cover image ACM Conferences

PLDI '06: Proceedings of the 27th ACM SIGPLAN Conference on Programming Language Design and Implementation

June 2006

438 pages

ISBN:1595933204

DOI:10.1145/1133981

General Chair:
Michael Schwartzbach
University of Aarhus, Denmark
,
Program Chair:
Thomas Ball
Microsoft Research

ACM SIGPLAN Notices Volume 41, Issue 6
Proceedings of the 2006 PLDI Conference
June 2006
426 pages
ISSN:0362-1340
EISSN:1558-1160
DOI:10.1145/1133255
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Copyright © 2006 ACM.

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Published: 11 June 2006

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June 11 - 14, 2006

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Cited By

Jones CYatapanage N(2019)Investigating the limits of rely/guarantee relations based on a concurrent garbage collector exampleFormal Aspects of Computing10.1007/s00165-019-00482-331:3(353-374)Online publication date: 1-Jun-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s00165-019-00482-3
Peleg HShoham SYahav EChaudron MCrnkovic IChechik MHarman M(2018)Programming not only by exampleProceedings of the 40th International Conference on Software Engineering10.1145/3180155.3180189(1114-1124)Online publication date: 27-May-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3180155.3180189
Chandra KBodik R(2017)Bonsai: synthesis-based reasoning for type systemsProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/31581502:POPL(1-34)Online publication date: 27-Dec-2017
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3158150
Jones CVelykis AYatapanage N(2017)General Lessons from a Rely/Guarantee DevelopmentDependable Software Engineering. Theories, Tools, and Applications10.1007/978-3-319-69483-2_1(3-22)Online publication date: 17-Oct-2017
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69483-2_1
Gammie PHosking AEngelhardt K(2015)Relaxing safely: verified on-the-fly garbage collection for x86-TSOACM SIGPLAN Notices10.1145/2813885.273800650:6(99-109)Online publication date: 3-Jun-2015
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2813885.2738006
Gammie PHosking AEngelhardt KGrove DBlackburn S(2015)Relaxing safely: verified on-the-fly garbage collection for x86-TSOProceedings of the 36th ACM SIGPLAN Conference on Programming Language Design and Implementation10.1145/2737924.2738006(99-109)Online publication date: 3-Jun-2015
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Wu HJi Z(2015)Improving Trace Precision for Concurrent Garbage Collection on Multicore Platform2015 Fifth International Conference on Instrumentation and Measurement, Computer, Communication and Control (IMCCC)10.1109/IMCCC.2015.316(1493-1496)Online publication date: Sep-2015
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Portillo-Dominguez AWang MMurphy JMagoni D(2015)Adaptive GC-Aware Load Balancing Strategy for High-Assurance Java Distributed SystemsProceedings of the 2015 IEEE 16th International Symposium on High Assurance Systems Engineering10.1109/HASE.2015.19(68-75)Online publication date: 8-Jan-2015
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Kim HBak SLee J(2014)Lightweight and block-level concurrent sweeping for javascript garbage collectionACM SIGPLAN Notices10.1145/2666357.259782449:5(155-164)Online publication date: 12-Jun-2014
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Kim HBak SLee JZhang YKulkarni P(2014)Lightweight and block-level concurrent sweeping for javascript garbage collectionProceedings of the 2014 SIGPLAN/SIGBED conference on Languages, compilers and tools for embedded systems10.1145/2597809.2597824(155-164)Online publication date: 12-Jun-2014
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