On bounding time and space for multiprocessor garbage collection

This paper presents the first multiprocessor garbage collection algorithm with provable bounds on time and space. The algorithm is a real-time shared-memory copying collector. We prove that the algorithm requires at most 2(R(1 + 2/k) + N + 5PD) memory locations, where P is the number of processors, R is the maximum reachable space during a computation (number of locations accessible from the root set), N is the maximum number of reachable objects, D is the maximum depth of any data object, and k is a parameter specifying how many locations are copied each time a location is allocated. Furthermore we show that client threads are never stopped for more than time proportional to Ic nonblocking machine instructions. The bounds are guaranteed even with arbitrary length arrays. The collector only requires write-barriers (reads are unaffected by the collector), makes few assumptions about the threads that are generating the garbage, and allows them to run mostly asynchronously.