Method and system for incremental stack scanning
AssigneeiRobot Corporation
InventorKim A. Barrett
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An incremental garbage collector and method of incremental garbage collection useful for systems with real-time requirements, including a method for incrementally scanning multiple program stacks in units of individual stack locations. Methods and system allow the garbage collector to be preempted by the system and then return to garbage collection without rescanning any portion of a partially completed stack.
Claims5
A method of automatic memory management, comprising the steps of (a) executing a stack scan phase by scanning each of a plurality of memory stacks, (b) replacing, when starting the scan of a call frame, the continuation for reactivating that frame with an unwind routine which will, if necessary, complete the scan of the call frame and only then reactivate the frame, and (c) performing the scan incrementally.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.