Heap protection system

A computer system comprising:

• a number of processor units, wherein the number of processor units executes program instructions to:
• determine whether an object reference in a load instruction has an expected value for heap protection for a heap before loading the object reference for use in response to receiving the load instruction;
• associate a heap protection check with the load instruction, the heap protection check is used for heap protection and garbage collection, wherein heap protection control information defines a first range of memory locations for the heap for the heap protection, and wherein garbage collection control information defines a second range of memory locations for a subset of the heap for the garbage collection;
• determine whether the object reference has the expected value using the first range of memory locations using the heap protection control information in response to performing the heap protection;
• determine whether the object reference points to an object in the second range of memory locations for the garbage collection using the garbage collection control information in response to performing the garbage collection;
• and
• generate an event in response to the object reference not being the expected value, wherein the event is used to manage the object reference.

A computer program product for managing object references, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a computer system to cause the computer system to perform a method of:

• determining, by the computer system, whether an object reference fetched by a load instruction has an expected value for heap protection for a heap before loading the object reference for use, in response to receiving the load instruction;
• associating, by the computer system, a heap protection check with the load instruction, the heap protection check is used for heap protection and garbage collection, wherein heap protection control information defines a first range of memory locations for the heap for the heap protection, and wherein garbage collection control information defines a second range of memory locations for a subset of the heap for the garbage collection;
• determining, by the computer system, whether the object reference has the expected value using the first range of memory locations using the heap protection control information in response to performing the heap protection;
• determining, by the computer system, whether the object reference points to an object in the second range of memory locations for the garbage collection using the garbage collection control information in response to performing the garbage collection;
• and
• generating, by the computer system, an event in response to the object reference not being the expected value, wherein the event is used to manage the object reference.