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Objects that have been alive for more than one GC cycle live in the Young generation space. A run of the GC handles moving objects into the Young generation space automatically.
Objects live in the young generation space for X number of collections. X is dynamically adjusted based on how many objects are being promoted.
If too many objects are promoted during a given GC cycle, then X goes up. If not enough objects are promoted during a given GC cycle, then X goes down.
This is done in order to keep the rate of promotion stable. stable in this context means a low rate of change in object promotion.