METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR CONCURRENT ENUMERATION OF AN OBJECT REFERENCE ROOT SET

Methods and apparatus for performing a concurrent garbage collection process are disclosed. Preferably, upon detecting that less than a predetermined amount of memory is available, a garbage collector instructs each operating thread to self-enumerate to identify its associated live object reference root set, to report the live object reference root set, and to subsequently suspend operation. Based on the reported live object reference root sets, stale memory is identified and released for future use by operating threads. The threads are then instructed to resume operation.