Visualised guide to memory management in JavaScript
summary
Starts at hardware: RAM cells, addresses and virtual memory, then follows JavaScript values into V8 showing literal mechanisms — V8 uses a small Young generation (typically 1–8 MB), a scavenger two‑space copy collector that requires roughly double the space and yields millisecond pauses, and a major mark‑sweep‑compact collector that promotes ~20% of objects to the old generation. Covered details include string interning, pointer vs value layout, free lists and pages, concurrent marking/sweeping, compaction on the main thread, and where pauses still occur.
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chapters (8)
- 0:00Introduction and hardware
- 2:17Memory architecture
- 5:36JavaScript engine overview
- 8:21Heap and stack memory
- 12:21References and copying
- 15:50Garbage collection basics
- 20:13Advanced garbage collection
- 24:35Recap and conclusion
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