Constant-Time Root Scanning for Deterministic Garbage Collection

Root scanning is the task of identifying references to heap objects that are stored outside of the heap itself, in global and local variables and on the execution stack. Root scanning is particularly difficult within an incremental garbage collector that needs to be deterministic or give hard realtime guarantees. Here, a method that allows exact root scanning is presented. The basic idea is to ensure that copies of all root references exist on the heap whenever the garbage collector might become active. This approach reduces the root scanning phase of the garbage collection cycle to an efficient constant-time operation. A Java virtual machine and a static Java bytecode compiler that use this technique have been implemented and analysed using the SPECjvm98 benchmark suite. This Java implementation allows for deterministic memory management as needed in real-time systems that is difficult to achieve with traditional methods to perform root scanning.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2001
• Where: CC
• Authors: Fridtjof Siebert
• Keywords: CC 2001, Exact Root Scanning, Garbage Collector, Root Scanning, System Software