OPTIMIZING A MARKING PHASE IN MARK-SWEEP GARBAGE COLLECTORS BY REDUCING PAGING ACTIVITY

A garbage collector can initialize a garbage collection cycle. The cycle can include a mark phase and a sweep phase. The mark phase can traverses a complete set of objects in a heap. The heap can be associated with a virtual application memory including a primary memory and a secondary memory. The virtual application memory can be managed by a virtual memory manager, which moves pages between the primary memory and the secondary memory. Information can be bidirectionally communicated between a garbage collector and the virtual memory manager. A default order in which the objects are evaluated during the mark phase can be altered to minimize paging activity. The altering of the order can be based at least in part upon information obtained from the virtual memory manager.