METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR GENERATIONAL GARBAGE COLLECTION OF A HEAP MEMORY SHARED BY MULTIPLE PROCESSORS

Apparatus, methods, systems and computer program products are disclosed describing generational garbage collection on a card-marked heap memory shared by multiple processing units. When one of the processing units detects that the free space available for node creation is below a threshold, that processing unit pauses its heap mutation processes and signals the other processing units to also pause mutation. After the other processing units pause heap mutation, the processing units then proceed to execute generational garbage collection procedures on the shared heap. The generational garbage collection procedures for each processing unit are driven by pointers stored in each processing unit's register, stack and static variables along with pointers within a specified partition of the shared card-marked heap. The processing units resume mutation of the heap once they all complete their garbage collection processes.