Dynamic Memory Management: Challenges for Today and Tomorrow

Garbage collection (GC) is a key component of almost all modern programming languages. The advent of conventional object-oriented languages supported by managed run-times (e.g. Java, C# and even Managed C++) has brought GC into the mainstream and, as memory manager performance is critical for many large applications, brought GC to the attention of programmers outside its traditional functional programming language community. In this talk, I shall start by reviewing how GC got to where it is today, why it is desirable, what performance you might reasonably expect and I shall outline the directions in which GC research is moving. In particular, I'll look at some of the challenges facing modern GC, in contexts ranging from GC for high-performance, multiprocessor systems to GC for real-time systems and limited devices, from better integrating with its operating environment to supporting specific applications. I shall speculate wildly on future directions for research.