gc

[howell@cats.UCSC.EDU]

Dear Colleagues:

A colleague of mine here and I are working with MCL 2.0 for
doing real-time MIDI operations.  We use a very fast clock
which spins very fast waiting for incoming and outgoing MIDI
events.  This allow for incredible accuracy for example with
jazz accompaniments which match the tempo and notes of a
played melodic line.

The problem is that this clock creates immense amounts of
garbage such that in some cases a GC occurs within 10 seconds.
We are attempting to clean up the clock but our refinements
are such that it leads us to believe that even a very clean
clock will not impede the GC by much.  Is there a way to have
an incremental GC (i.e. do a little bit a lot of the time
rather than waiting and then having it take such a damnable
amount of time to collect)?  We can't just force a GC because
as you know even if there is nothing to collect it takes over
a second to function, sometimes even longer.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.