Garbage collection and task deletion in distributed applicative processing systems

Abstract

The problem of automatic storage reclamation for distributed implementations of applicative languages is explored. Highly parallel distributed systems have several unique characteristics that complicate the reclamation process; in this setting, the deficiencies of existing storage reclamation schemes are thus noted. A real-time, effectively distributed, garbage collector of the mark-sweep variety, called the marking-tree collector, is shown to accomplish reclamation in parallel with the main computation, with no centralized data or control other than a logical rendezvous between phases of the collector. In addition, it is capable of finding and subsequently deleting active processes which are determined to be no longer relevant to the computation.