Memory Management: Part I

This lecture covers memory management concepts such as block headers, external fragmentation, reference counting, reachability graphs, cyclic structures, mark & sweep garbage collection, allocation policies, splitting and coalescing, and reachability graph traversal. The pros and cons of reference counting are discussed, along with the uses of reference counting and the limitations it faces. The lecture also delves into mark & sweep garbage collection, its phases, marking objects, free lists, and allocation policies. The challenges of cyclic structures in reference counting are highlighted, leading to a discussion on conservative mark & sweep garbage collection and pointer identification.