Title :
A novel processor architecture with exact tag-free pointers
Author_Institution :
Stuttgart Univ., Germany
Abstract :
Along with the success of Java, garbage collection advances to embedded and real-time systems. In this paper a novel RISC processor architecture that lays the foundation for efficient real-time garbage collection in hardware and guarantees pointer integrity at the machine-code level is proposed. This article summarizes the most commonly used garbage collection methods and points out problems of contemporary software-based solutions to motivate architectural support for garbage collection.
Keywords :
data structures; embedded systems; reduced instruction set computing; storage management; RISC processor architecture; embedded processors; garbage collection; pointer integrity; real-time system; tag-free pointers; Application software; Computer architecture; Costs; Counting circuits; Hardware; Memory management; Quality management; Real time systems; Robustness; Software quality;
Journal_Title :
Micro, IEEE
