On the type accuracy of garbage collection

ABSTRACT

We describe a novel approach to obtaining type-accurate information for garbage collection in a hardware and language independent way. Our approach uses a run-time analysis to propagate pointer/non-pointer information from significant type events (such as allocation, which always returns a pointer). We use this technique to perform a detailed comparison of garbage collectors with different levels of accuracy and explicit deallocation on a range of C programs. We take advantage of the portability of our approach to conduct our experiments on three hardware platforms, Alpha/Digital UNIX 4.0D, Pentium/Linux 2.2, and SPARC/Solaris 2. We find that the choice of hardware platform (which includes the architecture, operating system, and libraries) greatly affects whether or not type accuracy enhances a garbage collector's ability to reclaim objects.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  D. Software
  D.4 OPERATING SYSTEMS
      D.4.2 Storage Management
          Subjects: Garbage collection

Additional Classification:
  D. Software
  D.3 PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES
      D.3.4 Processors
          Subjects: Memory management (garbage collection)

  F. Theory of Computation
  F.4 MATHEMATICAL LOGIC AND FORMAL LANGUAGES

  K. Computing Milieux
  K.6 MANAGEMENT OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS
      K.6.2 Installation Management
          Subjects: Benchmarks

General Terms:
Design, Experimentation, Languages, Management, Measurement, Performance, Reliability, Standardization, Theory