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International Conference on Grid and Pervasive Computing

GPC 2006: Advances in Grid and Pervasive Computing pp 346–359Cite as

A Lightweight Cyclic Reference Counting Algorithm

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNTCS,volume 3947))

Abstract

This paper focuses on a major weakness of reference counting technique – the lack of collecting cyclic garbage. Most reference counted systems handle this problem by either invoking a global mark-sweep collector occasionally, or incorporating a local ("partial") tracing collector that considers only the cycle candidates (objects) but needs several traces on them. This paper proposes a "lightweight" cycle detector, which is based on the partial tracing approach but collects garbage cycles in a simpler and more efficient way. Key to the algorithm is the removal of multiple traces on the cycle candidates – It effectively reclaims garbage cycles in only one trace. We have evaluated the algorithm in the Jikes Research Virtual Machine, where a set of benchmark programs from SPECjvm98 were applied. The experiments demonstrate the efficiency and practicability of the lightweight cycle detector, compared to a modern cycle detector that requires multiple traces on objects.

This research was supported by the National Science Council of R.O.C. under contract NSC 92-2213-E-006-045.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Engineering Science, National Cheng Kung University, No. 1, Ta-Hsueh Rd., Tainan, 701, Taiwan

    Chin-Yang Lin & Ting-Wei Hou

Authors
  1. Chin-Yang Lin
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  2. Ting-Wei Hou
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, National Tsing Hua University, 30013, Hsinchu, Taiwan

    Yeh-Ching Chung

  2. IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, NY, USA

    José E. Moreira

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© 2006 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Lin, CY., Hou, TW. (2006). A Lightweight Cyclic Reference Counting Algorithm. In: Chung, YC., Moreira, J.E. (eds) Advances in Grid and Pervasive Computing. GPC 2006. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 3947. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/11745693_35

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/11745693_35

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-33809-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-33810-9

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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