Analysis of the multi-phase copying garbage collection algorithm

The multi-phase copying garbage collection was designed to avoid the need for large amount of reserved memory usually required for the copying types of garbage collection algorithms. The collection is performed in multiple phases using the available free memory. This paper proves that the number of phases depends on the size of the reserved memory and the ratio of the garbage and accessible objects. The performance of the implemented algorithm is tested in a fine-grained parallel Prolog system. We find that reserving only 10% of memory for garbage collection is sufficient for good performance in practice. Additionally, an improvement of the generic algorithm specifically for the tested parallel Prolog system is described.