2009 MM-NET Workshop on

Techniques for Memory Management

Friday 12th June 2009, Manchester

UPDATE: Around 20 people attended the workshop, with interest from both industry and academia. Presentation slides are available, see the programme below.

About the workshop

There has been a recent increase in interest in applying analytical techniques to the prediction and modelling of memory management, which is broadly defined to include

garbage collection of main-memory, persistent and distributed systems;
explicit dynamic memory allocation/de-allocation
empirical studies of allocation behaviour
interactions with languages and operating systems

The UK MM-NET (Memory Management Network) therefore proposes to hold a 1-day workshop with emphasis on analytical techniques for memory management on Friday 12th June 2009 at the University of Manchester. Topics of interest include but are not limited to

static analysis for prediction of programs' interaction with memory
garbage collection supported by compile-time techniques
theoretical models of memory management
machine learning to tune memory management performance

Participation is welcomed from both academic and industrial sectors.

Workshop venue

[Kilburn Building] The MM-NET 09 workshop on Friday 12th June 2009 will be held at the School of Computer Science in the University of Manchester. The workshop is in the Atlas rooms, in the Kilburn building. Directions and maps are available.

Workshop registration is free, however participants must make their own travel and accommodation arrangements. Travelling to Manchester is generally straightforward. The easiest way to get from Piccadilly train station to the university campus is on the 147 bus [pdf]. There are plenty of local places to stay overnight if necessary. The nearest hotel is probably at the Manchester Business School.

Note that it is very easy to get from Manchester to Dublin in time for the PLDI and ISMM conferences.

Registration

The MM-NET 09 workshop is free to attend, thanks to the support of the LACE project which is funded by the EPSRC. You can register for the workshop here. We aim to foster interaction and discussion throughout the day. Registrations and talks will be allocated on a first-come first-served basis.

Programme

The workshop will open at 9:30 with on-site registration and coffee. The presentations begin at 10:00. We expect presentations to last 20-25 mins, with 5-10 mins for questions. At the end of each session, there is 15 mins open discussion time. Refreshments will be provided at lunch and throughout the day.

Session 1: Java Systems: 10:00-11:15: Chaired by R. Jones
10:00	Lu Kai	National University of Defense Technology, China	GENDP - An efficient system-level GC for Java OS	slides
10:30	Christos Kotselidis	University of Manchester, UK	GC algorithms in the Maxine Virtual Machine	slides
Session 2: Program Analysis: 11:45-13:00: Chaired by J. Singer
11:45	Robert Bunyan	University of Kent, UK	Homicidal Code: Static Detection and GC Exploitation	slides
12:15	Kevin Hammond	University of St Andrews, UK	Costing Memory Regions in Hume	slides
Session 3: Runtime Analysis/Optimization: 14:30-15:45: Chaired by K. Hammond
14:30	Andy Nisbet	Manchester Metropolitan University, UK	Dynamic and Application Specific Optimisation for Sparse Matrix Storage Formats	slides
15:00	Laurence Hellyer	University of Kent, UK	A framework for debugging barriers in concurrent systems	slides
Session 4: Discussion Panel: 16:00-17:00: Chaired by J. Singer
	Panel Members: Richard Jones (University of Kent); Ian Watson (University of Manchester); Ian Rogers (Azul Systems).

Contact details

The MM-NET 09 workshop is organized at Manchester by Jeremy Singer. Contact him at jsinger (at) cs.man.ac.uk for further information.