Generation scavenging: A non-disruptive high performance storage reclamation algorithm
D Ungar - ACM Sigplan notices, 1984 - dl.acm.org
ACM Sigplan notices, 1984•dl.acm.org
Many interactive computing environments provide automatic storage reclamation and virtual
memory to ease the burden of managing storage. Unfortunately, many storage reclamation
algorithms impede interaction with distracting pauses. Generation Scavenging is a
reclamation algorithm that has no noticeable pauses, eliminates page faults for transient
objects, compacts objects without resorting to indirection, and reclaims circular structures, in
one third the time of traditional approaches. We have incorporated Generation Scavenging …
memory to ease the burden of managing storage. Unfortunately, many storage reclamation
algorithms impede interaction with distracting pauses. Generation Scavenging is a
reclamation algorithm that has no noticeable pauses, eliminates page faults for transient
objects, compacts objects without resorting to indirection, and reclaims circular structures, in
one third the time of traditional approaches. We have incorporated Generation Scavenging …
Many interactive computing environments provide automatic storage reclamation and virtual memory to ease the burden of managing storage. Unfortunately, many storage reclamation algorithms impede interaction with distracting pauses. Generation Scavenging is a reclamation algorithm that has no noticeable pauses, eliminates page faults for transient objects, compacts objects without resorting to indirection, and reclaims circular structures, in one third the time of traditional approaches.
We have incorporated Generation Scavenging in Berkeley Smalltalk(BS), our Smalltalk-80 implementation, and instrumented it to obtain performance data. We are also designing a microprocessor with hardware support for Generation Scavenging.