article

Beltway: getting around garbage collection gridlock

Authors:

Stephen M Blackburn,

Kathryn S. McKinley,

J Eliot B MossAuthors Info & Claims

ACM SIGPLAN Notices, Volume 37, Issue 5

Pages 153 - 164

https://doi.org/10.1145/543552.512548

Published: 17 May 2002 Publication History

Abstract

We present the design and implementation of a new garbage collection framework that significantly generalizes existing copying collectors. The Beltway framework exploits and separates object age and incrementality. It groups objects in one or more increments on queues called belts, collects belts independently, and collects increments on a belt in first-in-first-out order. We show that Beltway configurations, selected by command line options, act and perform the same as semi-space, generational, and older-first collectors, and encompass all previous copying collectors of which we are aware. The increasing reliance on garbage collected languages such as Java requires that the collector perform well. We show that the generality of Beltway enables us to design and implement new collectors that are robust to variations in heap size and improve total execution time over the best generational copying collectors of which we are aware by up to 40%, and on average by 5 to 10%, for small to moderate heap sizes. New garbage collection algorithms are rare, and yet we define not just one, but a new family of collectors that subsumes previous work. This generality enables us to explore a larger design space and build better collectors.

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Cited By

Li PLuo HDing C(2016)Rethinking a heap hierarchy as a cache hierarchy: a higher-order theory of memory demand (HOTM)ACM SIGPLAN Notices10.1145/3241624.292670851:11(111-121)Online publication date: 14-Jun-2016
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3241624.2926708
Li PLuo HDing CFlood CZhang Z(2016)Rethinking a heap hierarchy as a cache hierarchy: a higher-order theory of memory demand (HOTM)Proceedings of the 2016 ACM SIGPLAN International Symposium on Memory Management10.1145/2926697.2926708(111-121)Online publication date: 14-Jun-2016
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2926697.2926708
Rahman MNasartschuk KKent KDueck G(2016)Trace Files for Automatic Memory Management Systems2016 IEEE 23rd International Conference on Software Analysis, Evolution, and Reengineering (SANER)10.1109/SANER.2016.118(9-12)Online publication date: Mar-2016
https://doi.org/10.1109/SANER.2016.118
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Index Terms

Beltway: getting around garbage collection gridlock
1. Software and its engineering
  1. Software organization and properties
    1. Contextual software domains
      1. Operating systems
        Memory management
        Garbage collection

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Information & Contributors

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Published In

cover image ACM SIGPLAN Notices

ACM SIGPLAN Notices Volume 37, Issue 5

May 2002

326 pages

ISSN:0362-1340

EISSN:1558-1160

DOI:10.1145/543552

Issue’s Table of Contents

PLDI '02: Proceedings of the ACM SIGPLAN 2002 conference on Programming language design and implementation
June 2002
338 pages
ISBN:1581134630
DOI:10.1145/512529
General Chair:
Jens Knoop
Universität Dortmund, Germany
,
Program Chair:
Laurie J. Hendren
McGill University, Canada

Copyright © 2002 ACM.

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Association for Computing Machinery

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Publication History

Published: 17 May 2002

Published in SIGPLAN Volume 37, Issue 5

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Cited By

Li PLuo HDing C(2016)Rethinking a heap hierarchy as a cache hierarchy: a higher-order theory of memory demand (HOTM)ACM SIGPLAN Notices10.1145/3241624.292670851:11(111-121)Online publication date: 14-Jun-2016
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3241624.2926708
Li PLuo HDing CFlood CZhang Z(2016)Rethinking a heap hierarchy as a cache hierarchy: a higher-order theory of memory demand (HOTM)Proceedings of the 2016 ACM SIGPLAN International Symposium on Memory Management10.1145/2926697.2926708(111-121)Online publication date: 14-Jun-2016
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2926697.2926708
Rahman MNasartschuk KKent KDueck G(2016)Trace Files for Automatic Memory Management Systems2016 IEEE 23rd International Conference on Software Analysis, Evolution, and Reengineering (SANER)10.1109/SANER.2016.118(9-12)Online publication date: Mar-2016
https://doi.org/10.1109/SANER.2016.118
Xian FSrisa-an WJiang H(2008)Garbage collectionScience of Computer Programming10.1016/j.scico.2007.07.00870:2-3(89-110)Online publication date: 1-Feb-2008
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.scico.2007.07.008
Zendra OJul EDucournau RGagnon EJones RKrintz CMulet PVitek J(2008)Implementation, Compilation, Optimization of Object-Oriented Languages, Programs and SystemsObject-Oriented Technology. ECOOP 2007 Workshop Reader10.1007/978-3-540-78195-0_6(50-64)Online publication date: 2008
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-78195-0_6
Soman SKrintz C(2007)Application-specific garbage collectionJournal of Systems and Software10.1016/j.jss.2006.12.56680:7(1037-1056)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2007
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.jss.2006.12.566
Ducournau RGagnon EKrintz CMulet PVitek JZendra O(2007)Implementation, Compilation, Optimization of Object-Oriented Languages, Programs and SystemsObject-Oriented Technology. ECOOP 2006 Workshop Reader10.1007/978-3-540-71774-4_1(1-14)Online publication date: 2007
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-71774-4_1
Gu DVerbrugge CGagnon EBoehm HGrove D(2006)Relative factors in performance analysis of Java virtual machinesProceedings of the 2nd international conference on Virtual execution environments10.1145/1134760.1134776(111-121)Online publication date: 14-Jun-2006
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1134760.1134776
Jones R(2006)Five perspectives on modern memory managementScience of Computer Programming10.1016/j.scico.2006.05.00362:2(95-97)Online publication date: 1-Oct-2006
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Clinger WRojas F(2006)Linear combinations of radioactive decay models for generational garbage collectionScience of Computer Programming10.1016/j.scico.2006.02.00562:2(184-203)Online publication date: 1-Oct-2006
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