High Performance Storage Reclamation in an Object-Based Memory System
Scott B. Baden · UC Berkeley · 1982
Measurements of the Smalltalk Virtual Machine indicate that 20%-30% of the time is spent reclaiming disused storage. Following the work of Deutsch, Bobrow, and Snyder [Deutsch and Bobrow 76] [Deutsch 82a] [Deutsch 82b] [Snyder 79] we introduce a strategy that reduces the overhead of storage reclamation by more than 80%. We discuss the design of hardware to support this strategy, and compare the hardware to a traditional software implementation. We conclude by suggesting directions for future research