Garbage collection in a distributed environment

Abstract

A garbage collector for a distributed system is described. This collector is of the mark and sweep type, each processor having its own garbage collector process, with access to local data only. In order to limit idle time for the processors in this system, the garbage collectors run on-the-fly, that is, concurrently with the user program. The requirements put on the user program to achieve this are described. A new termination detection algorithm is imposed on the garbage collector, in order to detect a global state.