Abstract: A method and apparatus for managing a run-time environment is provided for improving performance and scalability of networked computer systems. In one example of the invention, a method starts by loading a class file, the class file specifying a class that includes a static class variable and a static initializer to initialize the static class variable. The static initializer is then invoked to initialize the static class variable. The class and the initialized static class variable are then saved in a second class file. The second class file is then loaded into a shared memory, the second class file including the class and the initialized static class variable.

Abstract: A programmed material consolidation apparatus includes at least one fabrication site and a material consolidation system associated with the at least one fabrication site. The at least one fabrication site may be configured to receive one or more fabrication substrates, such as semiconductor substrates. A machine vision system with a translatable or locationally fixed camera may be associated with the at least one fabrication site and the material consolidation system. A cleaning component may also be associated with the at least one fabrication site. The cleaning component may share one or more elements with the at least one fabrication site, or may be separate therefrom. The programmed material consolidation apparatus may also include a substrate handling system, which places fabrication substrates at appropriate locations of the programmed material consolidation apparatus.

Abstract: A programmed material consolidation apparatus includes at least one fabrication site and a material consolidation system associated with the at least one fabrication site. The at least one fabrication site may be configured to receive one or more fabrication substrates, such as semiconductor substrates. A machine vision system with a translatable or locationally fixed camera may be associated with the at least one fabrication site and the material consolidation system. A cleaning component may also be associated with the at least one fabrication site. The cleaning component may share one or more elements with the at least one fabrication site, or may be separate therefrom. The programmed material consolidation apparatus may also include a substrate handling system, which places fabrication substrates at appropriate locations of the programmed material consolidation apparatus.

Abstract: A static object system is provided to allow for code for implementing a run-time environment to be automatically generated that is compatible with a high-order systems programming language such as C. In particular, the meta-object system is static, object-oriented, and uses generic functions that can dispatch to an appropriate member function based on the types of one or more arguments. In one embodiment, the generated dispatch code uses a multi-way conditional branch.

Abstract: A programmed material consolidation apparatus includes at least one fabrication site and a material consolidation system associated with the at least one fabrication site. The at least one fabrication site may be configured to receive one or more fabrication substrates, such as semiconductor substrates. A machine vision system with a translatable or locationally fixed camera may be associated with the at least one fabrication site and the material consolidation system. A cleaning component may also be associated with the at least one fabrication site. The cleaning component may share one or more elements with the at least one fabrication site, or may be separate therefrom. The programmed material consolidation apparatus may also include a substrate handling system, which places fabrication substrates at appropriate locations of the programmed material consolidation apparatus.

Abstract: A programmed material consolidation apparatus includes at least one fabrication site and a material consolidation system associated with the at least one fabrication site. The at least one fabrication site may be configured to receive one or more fabrication substrates, such as semiconductor substrates. A machine vision system with a translatable or locationally fixed camera may be associated with the at least one fabrication site and the material consolidation system. A cleaning component may also be associated with the at least one fabrication site. The cleaning component may share one or more elements with the at least one fabrication site, or may be separate therefrom. The programmed material consolidation apparatus may also include a substrate handling system, which places fabrication substrates at appropriate locations of the programmed material consolidation apparatus.

Abstract: A programmed material consolidation apparatus includes at least one fabrication site and a material consolidation system associated with the at least one fabrication site. The at least one fabrication site may be configured to receive one or more fabrication substrates, such as semiconductor substrates. A machine vision system with a translatable or locationally fixed camera may be associated with the at least one fabrication site and the material consolidation system. A cleaning component may also be associated with the at least one fabrication site. The cleaning component may share one or more elements with the at least one fabrication site, or may be separate therefrom. The programmed material consolidation apparatus may also include a substrate handling system, which places fabrication substrates at appropriate locations of the programmed material consolidation apparatus.

Abstract: A method and software for managing memory are provided in which objects residing in session memory are formatted so the references contained in the objects are in a machine-independent format, namely, that the references are encoded numerically. An exit table is provided to handle references with session memory that refer to locations in call memory, in which each entry in the exit table is associated with a corresponding reference in session memory and contains a pointer to the location in call memory.

Abstract: A method for removing the edge bead from a substrate by applying an impinging stream of a medium that is not a solvent for the material to be removed. The medium is applied to the periphery of the substrate with sufficient force to remove the material. Also an apparatus to perform the inventive method.

Abstract: Methods of memory management in a run-time environment are described. A mechanism is provided for registering a routine to deinitialize or deallocate a large object at the end of a call (e.g. by setting it to null to unreference the object), which prevents the large object from being migrated into session memory, e.g. when live objects are migrated at the end of the call. This routine is called after the finalization of garbage collected objects that may use the large object. In a subsequent call, the large object is checked before use to determine if the object is deinitialized and re-initialized if the large object was deinitialized.

Abstract: Objects that are managed within a run-time environment are stored on N-bit aligned addresses. Due to the alignment restriction, the N least significant bits of a reference to an object are available for storing information about the storage properties of the object. This information is extractable by fast register operations. The storage properties can include the lifetime, format, and contiguity of the object, or a combination of these properties. If the run-time environment implements a generational garbage collector, the reference tags are used to encode whether or not the object is recently allocated.

Abstract: A memory model for a run-time environment is disclosed that includes a process-specific area of memory where objects in call-specific area of memory and session-specific area of memory can be migrated to at the end of a database call. User-specific objects can be then migrated to the session-specific area of memory. In one embodiment, the process-specific area of memory can be saved in a disk file and used to hot start another instance of an application server.

Abstract: A method and software for managing class variables is described in which a variable-format container for static class variables is provided such that numeric class variables can be accessed directly while other kinds of class variables are accessed via a reference to an object.

Abstract: A method for scanning objects as for garbage collection is described that employ an ancillary data structure to describe the format of an object. Specifically, the data structure lists which parts of the object are references and how large each part of the object is. Scanning the object can efficiently occur by stepping through the object and the data structure in parallel.

Abstract: A method and software for performing data migration is described in which a common data migration driver routine is provided to handle various and disparate kinds of migration operations in a conceptually unified manner. Differences between the migration operations are handled by variations in how the state of the data migration driver routine is initialized, including pointers to low-level routines. Furthermore, a table of actions can be used to direct the basic operation of object copying, external reference created, and object interning.

Abstract: A method and software for managing pointers to external objects in a run-time environment are described in which eager external references are provided that allow session memory objects to point directly to certain call memory objects with machine pointers. The eager external references contain enough information to recreate the call memory objects in call memory at the beginning of the call and fix the session memory objects to point to the new locations of the recreated call memory objects.

Abstract: Methods for managing memory in a run-time environment are described, in which an object is activated by both initializing the object and registering a routine to deallocate or deactivate the object at the end of a call (e.g. by setting it to null to unreference the object), which prevents the object, which may be a large object, from being migrated into session memory. This deactivation routine is called after the finalization of garbage collected objects that may use the object. In a subsequent call, the object is checked before use to determine if the object is already activated and re-initialized if the object is not activated.

Abstract: An approach is provided for maintaining a write barrier during an assignment operation between a source object and a target object. A source tag is obtained from a first reference to the source object, and a target tag is obtained from a second reference to the target object. The source tag and the target tag are compared, such that if the source tag is in a predetermined relationship with the target tag, then a data structure (e.g., a remember table or exit table) associated with the write barrier is updated in accordance with the assignment operation. In one embodiment, the routine to update the data structure is dispatched from a function table based on a tag value in a header associated with the source object.

Abstract: Objects that are managed within a run-time environment are stored on N-bit aligned addresses. Due to the alignment restriction, the N least significant bits of a reference to an object are available for storing information about the storage properties of the object. This information is extractable by fast register operations. The storage properties can include the lifetime, format, and contiguity of the object, or a combination of these properties. If the run-time environment implements a generational garbage collector, the reference tags are used to encode whether or not the object is recently allocated.

Abstract: Objects that are managed within a run-time environment are stored on N-bit aligned addresses. Due to the alignment restriction, the N least significant bits of a reference to an object are available for storing information about the storage properties of the object. This information is extractable by fast register operations. The storage properties can include the lifetime, format, and contiguity of the object, or a combination of these properties. If the run-time environment implements a generational garbage collector, the reference tags are used to encode whether or not the object is recently allocated.