[GSoC] Project proposal: Implement WeakReference support in Harmony concurrent GC

[Xiao-Feng Li <xi...@gmail.com>]

"Harmony already has a concurrent GC (called Tick, with three
concurrent GC algorithms). It runs well with standard benchmarks. The
only remaining unfinished feature is WeakReference support . Weakly
referenced object (i.e., referent) is accessed through get()
interface. That means, get() operation can make a weakly reachable
referent strongly reachable. During concurrent collection, the system
must monitor the get() operation to catch this change of reachability,
otherwise the referent could be reclaimed. This project also includes
to integrate the WeakReference processing with Finalization process.
Other optimizations in Tick are also desirable, such as to reduce the
amount of floating garbage. "

Thanks,
xiaofeng
-- 
http://people.apache.org/~xli