[Oberon] New BB release

[Dan Parnete]

Ulrike Glavitsch wrote:
> Dear BB/AOS-users,
>
> a new crazy-fresh release of BB/AOS is ready for download under 
> http://www.bluebottle.ethz.ch.
> After months of development of a new GC that uses meta data for stack 
> inspection a first version of AOS with the new GC is available now.
> We found that the old GC that uses a heuristic for stack inspection 
> can block the whole system. The test program that causes such a system 
> freeze is attached to this mail (please use the commands 
> Test.TestStack~ to start the test, i.e. creation of 8000 threads with 
> some LONGINT stack values, Test.StartGC 1000 ~ to initiate GC calls 
> and Test.StopGC to stop the GC calls). The system with the old GC will 
> freeze after a few GC calls. The new GC does not have this system 
> freeze problem.
> A few little things still need to be improved with the new GC. These 
> are mainly:
> 1) Use of meta data for kernel stacks (kernel stacks are still 
> inspected using the heuristic in the new GC)
> 2) Inspection of the awaiting queues (solved neither in the old nor in 
> the new GC)
>
> Please use this release with caution. If you encounter problems with 
> it please report them to me.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Ulla Glavitsch
>
I'm glad to hear the awaiting hanging after freeing the module will be 
resolved. Very annoying, and sometimes blocks the reboot of the system.
What about files rested in queue for long time, even after Register? A 
sort of write lock.
Will be this new GC faster then the actual, or at least less CPU consumer?


With compliments,
Dan Parnete