language: en

[ACM Sigplan Notices 27,3 (March 1992),66-70.]

[Copyright 1991 by Nimble Computer Corporation 1]

The Treadmill: Real-Time Garbage Collection Without Motion Sickness

Henry G. Baker
Nimble Computer Corporation,
16231 Meadow Ridge Way, Encino, CA 91436

[(818) 501-4956 (818) 986-1360 FAX]

A simple real-time garbage collection algorithm is presented which does not copy, thereby avoiding some of the problems caused by the asynchronous motion of objects. This in-place "treadmill" garbage collection scheme has approximately the same complexity as other nonmoving garbage collectors, thus making it usable in a high-level language implementation where some pointers cannot be traced. The treadmill is currently being used in a Lisp system built in Ada.

INTRODUCTION