ST-CRTS: Compiler and Run-Time Support for Memory Management Using Explicit Memory Reclamation

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BackgroundMemory management is a key component in the performance and reliability of virtually all softwaresystems. Explicit reclamation of memory is error-prone, but efficient in time and space. On the otherhand, automatic memory management via garbage collection eliminates memory errors, but requires aheavyweight run-time system that imposes a certain amount of run-time and memory overhead.The goal of this research is to explore novel compiler and run-time techniques for safe memorymanagement with explicit memory deallocation and without garbage collection.Intellectual Merit The PI will develop a system that will provide memory management support for Java in the following forms:- It will augment Java bytecodes with primitive instructions for explicit memory reclamation;- It will provide novel compiler analyses and transformations to automatically augment programs with explicit memory deallocation- It will provide appropriate run-time support for explicit memory deallocation in an extended Javavirtual machine.The proposed work will investigate two paradigms for memory management with explicit deallocation:- Region-based memory management, which groups data objects together into regions and deallocatesall of the objects in each region at once.- Individual object deallocation, which reclaims storage for one object at a time. This approachwill use a single operation free to deallocate one object instance at a time.-This research will leverage advanced static analyses such as pointer and shape analyses as key components of the proposed system to enable the accurate and safe reclamation of memory.Broader ImpactThis work proposes novel static analyses for pointer-based program structures, and their integrationwith novel program transformations, run-time techniques, and program verification approaches to addressthe memory management problem, an important problem in modern software systems. This research has the potential to lead to important advances in compiler technology. The PI proposes a broad dissemination of the developed tools, making them available to the public and to the research community; such tools have the potential to become useful to a broad class of consumers.In addition, he plans to use the results of this research to support several educational activities.First, it will serve as a research topic for his students, both graduate and undergraduate. Second, heintends to integrate the novel analyses developed as part of this research into the courses that he willteach: the undergraduate compiler course, and the advanced seminar on program analysis.