Memory Allocation
Copyright : University of Illinois CS 241 Staff 1
Variable Size Partitions
Idea
Allocate memory in small units
Give each job as many units as it needs
A B C D E
Key Challenges
Keep track of free / allocated memory regions
Allocation policy to assign free regions to jobs
Copyright : University of Illinois CS 241 Staff 2
Malloc: Dynamic Allocation
Idea
Allocate memory in small units
Give each request as many units as it needs
A B C D E
Key Challenges
Keep track of free / allocated memory regions
Allocation policy to assign free regions to objects
Copyright : University of Illinois CS 241 Staff 3
Malloc and Friends
void* malloc(size_t size)
void free(void* ptr)
void* realloc(void* ptr, size_t size)
Allocate new object if old is smaller
If so, copy memory and free old memory
Return new memory
void* calloc(size_t count, size_t size)
malloc count*size and zero the bytes
Copyright : University of Illinois CS 241 Staff 4
Dynamic allocation: Metrics
Memory Usage: Max, avg. heap size
Minimize fragmentation
Allocation speed: Avg cost per malloc
Choose large enough free region
Deallocation speed: Avg cost per free
Find object size
Return to free list
Copyright : University of Illinois CS 241 Staff 5
Pieces of the Puzzle
1. Free list
Tracking, finding free regions
2. Allocation Policy:
Choosing free region for allocation
3. Deallocation Policy:
Speed up searches; minimize fragmentation
Copyright : University of Illinois CS 241 Staff 6
1. Tracking Free Regions
Goals
Keep track of free / allocated memory regions
Find free regions of sufficient size
Mechanisms for tracking memory regions
Bitmaps
Each bit corresponds to a single unit of memory
Linked lists
Each list entry corresponds to contiguous region
Copyright : University of Illinois CS 241 Staff 7
Bit Maps and Linked Lists
8 16 24
A B C D E
Part of memory with 5 processes, 3 holes
Tick marks show allocation units
Green regions are free
Copyright : University of Illinois CS 241 Staff 8
Bit Maps and Linked Lists
8 16 24
A B C D E
11111000
11111111
11001111
11111000
Part of memory with 5 objects, 3 holes
Tick marks show allocation units
Green regions are free
Copyright : University of Illinois CS 241 Staff 9
Bit Maps and Linked Lists
8 16 24
A B C D E
11111000 P 0 5 H 5 3 P 8 6 P 14 4
11111111
11001111
11111000 H 18 2 P 20 6 P 26 3 H 29 3 X
Hole Starts Length Object
at 18 2
Part of memory with 5 objects, 3 holes
Tick marks show allocation units
Green regions are free
Copyright : University of Illinois CS 241 Staff 10
Storage Tracking Schemes
Bitmap vs. link list
Which one occupies more space?
Which one is faster to reclaim freed space?
Which one is faster to find a free hole?
Copyright : University of Illinois CS 241 Staff 11
Storage Tracking Schemes
Bitmap vs. link list
Which one occupies more space?
Depends on the individual memory allocation scenario
In most cases, bitmap usually occupies more space
Which one is faster to reclaim freed space?
On average, bitmap is faster because it just needs to
set the corresponding bits
Which one is faster to find a free hole?
On average, a link list is faster because we can link all
free holes together
Copyright : University of Illinois CS 241 Staff 12
2. Storage Allocation Policies
Goals: Given allocation size:
Choose a large enough free region (hole)
Assign part of that hole and save rest
Common Policies:
1.
2.
3.
Copyright : University of Illinois CS 241 Staff 13
Storage Allocation Policies
First fit
Use first hole whose size is large enough
Rationale?
Best fit
Use first exact size or smallest hole that is larger
Rationale?
Worst fit
Use the largest available hole
Rationale?
Copyright : University of Illinois CS 241 Staff 14
Example
Consider a swapping system in which
memory consists of the following hole sizes
in memory order:
10K, 4K, 20K, 18K, 7K, 9K, 12K, and 15K.
Which hole is taken for successive segment
requests of:
12K
10K
9K
Copyright : University of Illinois CS 241 Staff 15
Storage Allocation Policies
Best fit
Produces the smallest leftover hole
Creates small holes that cannot be used
Worst Fit
Produces the largest leftover hole
Difficult to run large programs
First Fit
Creates average size holes
First-fit and best-fit better than worst-fit in terms of
speed and/or storage utilization
Copyright : University of Illinois CS 241 Staff 17
Fragmentation
Internal Fragmentation
Allocated memory may be larger than
requested memory
The extra memory is internal to a
partition/block, but not being used
External Fragmentation
Memory space exists to satisfy a request,
but it is not contiguous
Reduce by compaction, buddy allocation
Copyright : University of Illinois CS 241 Staff 18
3. Deallocation Policies
Goals: Given deallocation pointer:
Find size of the target object
Restore the memory to the free list
Minimize fragmentation
Common Mechanisms:
1. Object metadata to find size
2. Binary buddy system to reduce external
fragmentation
Copyright : University of Illinois CS 241 Staff 19
Object Metadata
void free(void* ptr)
A C B Free
Find size of target object fast: How?
Copyright : University of Illinois CS 241 Staff 20
Metadata Before Object
void free(void* ptr)
Metadata at front of object:
4 bytes for object size: 232-1
4 bytes for pointer to linked list of objects
C++, Java, : 4-8 bytes for class, GC
Copyright : University of Illinois CS 241 Staff 21
Binary Buddy Allocator
Memory allocated using
power-of-2 allocator
Satisfy requests in units of
size power of 2
Request rounded up to
next highest power of 2
When smaller allocation
needed than is available,
current chunk split into two
buddies of next-lower
power of 2
Continue until
appropriate sized chunk
available
Copyright : University of Illinois CS 241 Staff 22
Binary Buddy System
Approach
Minimum allocation size = smallest frame
Use a bitmap to monitor frame use
Maintain freelist for each possible frame size
power of 2 frame sizes from min to max
Initially one block = entire buffer
If two neighboring frames (buddies) are free, combine
them and add to next larger freelist
Copyright : University of Illinois CS 241 Staff 23
Buddy System Example
128 Free
Copyright : University of Illinois CS 241 Staff 24
Buddy System Example
Process A requests 16
128 Free
64 Free 64 Free
32 Free 32 Free 64 Free
16 A 16 Free 32 Free 64 Free
Copyright : University of Illinois CS 241 Staff 25
Buddy System Example
Process B requests 32
16 A 16 Free 3232Free
B 128 Free 64 Free
Copyright : University of Illinois CS 241 Staff 26
Buddy System Example
Process C requests 8
16 A 16 Free 32 B 128 Free 64 Free
8
16 A 8 32 B 64 Free
C
Copyright : University of Illinois CS 241 Staff 27
Buddy System Example
Process A exits
8
16 Free 8 32 B 64 Free
C
Copyright : University of Illinois CS 241 Staff 28
Buddy System Example
Process C exits
16 Free 8 8 32 B 64 Free
16 Free 16 Free 32 B 64 Free
32 Free 32 B 64 Free
Copyright : University of Illinois CS 241 Staff 29
Buddy System: Tradeoffs
Advantages
Very fast search for Best Fit allocation policy
Fast compaction
Minimizes external fragmentation
Disadvantage
Internal fragmentation when not 2^n request
Copyright : University of Illinois CS 241 Staff 30
