On-the-fly garbage collection: an exercise in cooperation

  • Authors:
  • Edsger W. Dijkstra;Leslie Lamport;A. J. Martin;C. S. Scholten;E. F. M. Steffens

  • Affiliations:
  • Burroughs Corporation, Al Nuenen, The Netherlands;SRI International, Menlo Park, CA;Philips Research Labs., Eindhoven, The Netherlands;Philips Research Labs., Eindhoven, The Netherlands;Philips Research Labs., Eindhoven, The Netherlands

  • Venue:
  • Communications of the ACM
  • Year:
  • 1978

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Abstract

As an example of cooperation between sequential processes with very little mutual interference despite frequent manipulations of a large shared data space, a technique is developed which allows nearly all of the activity needed for garbage detection and collection to be performed by an additional processor operating concurrently with the processor devoted to the computation proper. Exclusion and synchronization constraints have been kept as weak as could be achieved; the severe complexities engendered by doing so are illustrated.