Much Ado about Offset Vectors

Abstract

Offset-Vector Compaction (OVC) algorithms, such as the Compressor, are among the most widely deployed garbage collectors today, yet they have remained largely unexplored by the literature since the earliest algorithms were published two decades ago. Although an implementation in the Android Runtime is publicly available and a number of other variations on the algorithm have been developed or proposed, these have not been analyzed or evaluated with recent benchmarks or compared with modern server collectors. This gap in the literature may curtail innovation and exploration of new ideas while reinforcing unchallenged conventional wisdom.