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Efficient garbage collection and exception handling in a hardware accelerated transactional memory system

  • US 8,402,218 B2
  • Filed: 12/15/2009
  • Issued: 03/19/2013
  • Est. Priority Date: 12/15/2009
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. In a computing environment comprising a hardware assisted transaction system, a method of writing to a card table in a generational garbage collection system that gives preference to performing garbage collection activities on newer generation generational objects, and where writing to the card table marks older generation generational objects that are updated with references pointing to newer generation generational objects so that references by the older generation generational objects can be given preference in garbage collection activities, the method comprising:

  • beginning a hardware assisted transaction to cause reads and writes to be buffered and monitored to prevent conflicting reads and writes, using an isolated cache memory structure;

    determining, while the transaction is running, that a write entry needs to be made to a card table to keep track of a reference from an older generation generational object in a generational garbage collection system to a newer generation generational object in the generational garbage collection system; and

    as a result of determining that a write entry needs to be made to a card table performing a write to an entry in the card table outside of the transaction, such that the entry is not added to the transaction'"'"'s write set and such that the write does not establish read or write monitoring on the entry, and such that the reference from the older generation generational object to the newer generation generational object in the card table remains even if the transaction is subsequently rolled back, thus causing garbage collection operations to be performed using the reference to the newer generational object irrespective of whether the reference is valid as a result of the transaction having committed or invalid as a result of the transaction having been rolled back.

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