What is an “internal address” in Java?

Question

In the Javadoc for Object.hashCode() it states

As much as is reasonably practical, the hashCode method defined by class Object does retur

Answer 1

IMHO, although implementation dependent, Object references in JVM are never actual memory addresses, but internal JVM references that point to actual addresses. These internal references ARE generated initially based on memory address, but they remain associated with the object until it is discarded.

I say this because Java HotSpot GCs are copying collectors of some form or the other, and they work by traversing live objects and copying them from one heap to the other, destroying the old heap subsequently. So when GC occurs, the JVM does not have to update the references in all objects, but just change the actual memory address mapped to the internal reference.