i> Each object has an associated mark bit.
Clear all mark bits, indicating that all objects
are potentially unreachable.

<LI>
<I>Mark phase</i> Marks all objects that can be reachable via chains of
pointers from variables.  Often the collector has no real information
about the location of pointer variables in the heap, so it
views all static data areas, stacks and registers as potentially containing
pointers.  Any bit patterns that represent addresses inside
heap objects managed by the collector are viewed