Progress in Hardware-Assisted Real-Time Garbage Collection

Hardware-assisted real-time garbage collection offers more reliable operation and higher performance than software-only real-time garbage collection systems. Completed simulation studies have analyzed the behavior of a hardware-assisted garbage collection system tuned primarily to achieve high throughput. Based on these studies, we conclude that system designers can trade small amounts of performance loss for significant cost reductions. This paper provides an overview of an alternative design for hardware-assisted real-time garbage collection that has been configured with the primary goal of maximizing performance per unit cost. Improved functionality is achieved by providing support for a variety of garbage collection algorithms, including fully copying, incremental mark and sweep, mostly stationary, and generational techniques.

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