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A memory system for association with a user processor for operation independently from the user processor includes a physical memory and an interface unit for enabling the associated user processor to access the physical memory. The physical memory is represented in a virtual address space which is

A memory system for association with a user processor for operation independently from the user processor includes a physical memory and an interface unit for enabling the associated user processor to access the physical memory. The physical memory is represented in a virtual address space which is garbage collected in parallel with the operation of the user processor. The garbage collection process includes reference count deallocation and a garbage collection algorithm for deallocating cyclic structures not deallocated by the reference count process. The reference count process includes providing for a reference count indicating the number of pointer references to a memory block in the virtual address space. When the reference count becomes zero, and no other references to a memory block exist, the block may be freed. In the garbage collection algorithm, the virtual memory space is traced in areas, called OLDSPACE, and compactly copied into a new area, called NEWSPACE. The OLDSPACE and NEWSPACE are further scavenged to insure that all referenced blocks of memory are copied, and the remaining OLDSPACE is cleaned. The garbage collection process is performed in parallel with the operation of the user processor.

대표청구항 ▼

A memory system for use with a user processor, comprising: a physical memory; a binding register unit having a plurality of registers accessed by the user processor, said registers containing only identifiers for blocks of memory and data, wherein said binding register unit enables relative location

A memory system for use with a user processor, comprising: a physical memory; a binding register unit having a plurality of registers accessed by the user processor, said registers containing only identifiers for blocks of memory and data, wherein said binding register unit enables relative location indexing by the user processor for data manipulation; means independent from the user processor for managing the physical memory and binding register unit, wherein the memory system functions as a collection of user specified blocks accessed only through the binding register unit; computer program means for controlling the physical memory; and binding register managing means for performing garbage collection of a virtual address space representing the physical memory independently from and in parallel with the operation of the user processor, wherein all blocks which cannot be reached by following pointers directly or indirectly from any binding register are garbage, and all blocks which can be reached by following pointers directly or indirectly from any binding register are not garbage.