Appeal No. 1998-2979
Application No. 08/274,923
BACKGROUND
The appellant's invention relates to a real-time computer "garbage collector" to
reclaim unused memory. An understanding of the invention can be derived from a reading
of exemplary claim 1, which is reproduced below.
1. A method for performing real-time computer garbage collection, for
use with a plurality of data objects and with one or more mutator programs,
each one of said mutators having a corresponding thread and each one of
said mutator threads having a corresponding thread state separate from
said plurality of data objects, said method comprising the following steps:
commencing a new garbage collection cycle;
temporarily restricting execution of said mutators while
processing the corresponding thread state for
each one of said mutators;
permitting each one of said mutators to resume
unrestricted execution, as soon as said
mutator's own corresponding thread state has
been processed;
completing the garbage collection cycle by identifying
each one of said objects that is currently
accessible to at least one of said mutators.
The prior art reference of record relied upon by the examiner in rejecting the
appealed claims is:
2
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007