A low overhead method for recovering unused memory inside regions

Abstract

Automating memory management improves both resource safety and programmer productivity. One approach, region-based memory management [9] (RBMM), applies compile-time reasoning to identify points in a program at which memory can be safely reclaimed. The main advantage of RBMM over traditional garbage collection (GC) is the avoidance of expensive runtime analysis, which makes reclaiming memory much faster. On the other hand, GC requires no static analysis, and, operating at runtime, can have significantly more accurate information about object lifetimes. In this paper we propose a hybrid system that seeks to combine the advantages of both methods while avoiding the overheads that previous hybrid systems incurred. Our system can also reclaim array segments whose elements are no longer reachable.