Article

Oil and Water? High Performance Garbage Collection in Java with MMTk

Authors:

Stephen M. Blackburn,

Kathryn S. McKinleyAuthors Info & Claims

ICSE '04: Proceedings of the 26th International Conference on Software Engineering

Pages 137 - 146

Published: 23 May 2004 Publication History

Abstract

Increasingly popular languages such as Java and C# requireefficient garbage collection. This paper presents thedesign, implementation, and evaluation of MMTk, a MemoryManagement Toolkit for and in Java. MMTk is an efficient, composable, extensible, and portable framework for building garbage collectors. MMTk uses design patternsand compiler cooperation to combine modularity and efficiency. The resulting system is more robust, easier to maintain, and has fewer defects than monolithic collectors. Experimentalcomparisons with monolithic Java and C implementationsreveal MMTk has significant performance advantagesas well. Performance critical system software typicallyuses monolithic C at the expense of flexibility. Our resultsrefute common wisdom that only this approach attainsefficiency, and suggest that performance critical softwarecan embrace modular design and high-level languages.

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Cited By

Meiohas CBlackburn SPetrank E(2023)Linear-Mark: Locality vs. Accuracy in Mark-Sweep Garbage CollectionProceedings of the International Symposium on Memory Systems10.1145/3631882.3631893(1-12)Online publication date: 2-Oct-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3631882.3631893
Yang AWrigstad T(2022)Deep Dive into ZGC: A Modern Garbage Collector in OpenJDKACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems10.1145/353853244:4(1-34)Online publication date: 21-Sep-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3538532
Nanjekye JBremner DMicic AOnuţ IZulkernine F(2021)Eclipse OMR garbage collection for tracing JIT-based virtual machinesProceedings of the 31st Annual International Conference on Computer Science and Software Engineering10.5555/3507788.3507826(244-249)Online publication date: 22-Nov-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/3507788.3507826
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Index Terms

Oil and Water? High Performance Garbage Collection in Java with MMTk
1. Software and its engineering
  1. Software notations and tools
    1. General programming languages
      1. Language features
        Classes and objects
        Patterns
      2. Language types
  2. Software organization and properties
    1. Contextual software domains
      1. Operating systems
        Memory management
        Garbage collection

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cover image ACM Conferences

ICSE '04: Proceedings of the 26th International Conference on Software Engineering

May 2004

761 pages

ISBN:0769521630

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SIGSOFT: ACM Special Interest Group on Software Engineering

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IEEE Computer Society

United States

Publication History

Published: 23 May 2004

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ICSE04

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SIGSOFT

ICSE04: 26th International Conference on Software Engineering

May 23 - 28, 2004

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ICSE '04 Paper Acceptance Rate 58 of 436 submissions, 13%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 276 of 1,856 submissions, 15%

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Cited By

Meiohas CBlackburn SPetrank E(2023)Linear-Mark: Locality vs. Accuracy in Mark-Sweep Garbage CollectionProceedings of the International Symposium on Memory Systems10.1145/3631882.3631893(1-12)Online publication date: 2-Oct-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3631882.3631893
Yang AWrigstad T(2022)Deep Dive into ZGC: A Modern Garbage Collector in OpenJDKACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems10.1145/353853244:4(1-34)Online publication date: 21-Sep-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3538532
Nanjekye JBremner DMicic AOnuţ IZulkernine F(2021)Eclipse OMR garbage collection for tracing JIT-based virtual machinesProceedings of the 31st Annual International Conference on Computer Science and Software Engineering10.5555/3507788.3507826(244-249)Online publication date: 22-Nov-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/3507788.3507826
Akram S(2021)Performance Evaluation of Intel Optane Memory for Managed WorkloadsACM Transactions on Architecture and Code Optimization10.1145/345134218:3(1-26)Online publication date: 22-Apr-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3451342
Cronburg KGuyer SSchaefer IReichenbach CStorm T(2019)Floorplan: spatial layout in memory management systemsProceedings of the 18th ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Generative Programming: Concepts and Experiences10.1145/3357765.3359519(81-93)Online publication date: 21-Oct-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3357765.3359519
Akram SSartor JMcKinley KEeckhout L(2019)Crystal GazerProceedings of the ACM on Measurement and Analysis of Computing Systems10.1145/3322205.33110803:1(1-27)Online publication date: 26-Mar-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3322205.3311080
Shi XKe ZZhou YJin HLu LZhang XHe LHu ZWang F(2019)DecaACM Transactions on Computer Systems10.1145/331036136:1(1-47)Online publication date: 14-Mar-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3310361
Akram SSartor JMcKinley KEeckhout L(2018)Write-rationing garbage collection for hybrid memoriesACM SIGPLAN Notices10.1145/3296979.319239253:4(62-77)Online publication date: 11-Jun-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3296979.3192392
Ugawa TRitson CJones R(2018)Transactional SapphireACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems10.1145/322622540:4(1-56)Online publication date: 10-Dec-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3226225
Akram SSartor JMcKinley KEeckhout LFoster JGrossman D(2018)Write-rationing garbage collection for hybrid memoriesProceedings of the 39th ACM SIGPLAN Conference on Programming Language Design and Implementation10.1145/3192366.3192392(62-77)Online publication date: 11-Jun-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3192366.3192392
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