Memory allocation is an important part of modern programming languages, including garbage-collected languages such as Java. We propose a fast memory allocation scheme for Java using lazy worst fit (LWF), where pointer increment is used as the primary allocation method and worst fit is used as a backup. We evaluated LWF on a working Java virtual machine with non-moving garbage collection, and the results show that LWF is practically useful since the overhead of fit allocation and the amount of fragmentation are low.

Traditional mark and sweep garbage collectors use time proportional to the heap size when sweeping memory, since all objects in the heap, dead or alive, must be traversed. Here we introduce a sweeping algorithm which traverses only the live objects. Since this sweeping algorithm is slower when the heap occupancy is high, we also discuss how to avoid this slowdown by using an adaptive algorithm. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Dynamic memory allocation is an important part of modern programming languages. It is important that it be done fast without wasting too much memory. Memory allocation using lazy fits is introduced, where pointer increments, which is very fast, is used as the primary allocation method and where conventional fits such as best fit or first fit are used as backup. Some experimental results showing how lazy fits might perform are shown, and shows that the approach has the potential to be useful in actual systems.

Mark and sweep garbage collectors are known for using time proportional to the heap size when sweeping memory, since all objects in the heap, regardless of whether they are live or not, must be visited in order to reclaim the memory occupied by dead objects. This paper introduces a sweeping method which traverses only the live objects, so that sweeping can be done in time dependent only on the number of live objects in the heap.