An On-the-Fly Reference Counting Garbage Collector for Java

Reference counting is not naturally suitable for running on multiprocessors. The update of pointers and reference counts requires atomic and synchronized operations. We present a novel reference counting algorithm suitable for a multiprocessor that does not require any synchronized operation in its write barrier (not even a compare-and-swap type of synchronization). The algorithm is efficient and may compete with any tracing algorithm. We have implemented our algorithm on SUN’s Java Virtual

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2001
• Where: OOPSLA
• Authors: Yossi Levanoni, Erez Petrank
• Keywords: OOPSLA 2001, Reference Counting, Reference Counting Algorithm, Reference Counts, Security Privacy