/*
 * Host.java
 *
 * Created on September 23, 2001, 4:43 PM
 */

package jicos.system;

/** Tasks use this interface to get their host's attributes.
 *
 * @author Peter Cappello
 * @version 1.0
 */
public interface Host 
{
    /**
     * Returns the total amount of memory in the Java Virtual Machine. 
     * The value returned by this method may vary over time, depending on the 
     * host environment. 
     *
     * Note that the amount of memory required to hold an object of any given 
     * type may be implementation-dependent.
     *
     * @returns the total amount of memory currently available for current and 
     * future objects, measured in bytes.
     */
    public long totalMemory();
    
    /**
     * Returns the amount of free memory in the system. Calling the gc method 
     * may result in increasing the value returned by freeMemory.
     *
     * @returns an approximation to the total amount of memory currently 
     * available for future allocated objects, measured in bytes.
     */
    public long freeMemory();
    
    /**
     * Requires JDK 1.4
     * @returns the number of processors available to the Java virtual machine.
     */
    public int availableProcessors();
}