Patent · US Expired

Method and system for memory allocation in a multiprocessing environment

US6353829B1 · kind B1 · utility

28Cited by
46References
68Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateDec 23, 1998
Grant dateMar 5, 2002
Priority date
Expiry dateDec 23, 2018

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F12/023
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A method and system for allocating memory. The computer system on which the memory allocation system executes may support the simultaneous execution of multiple threads. Under control of a thread, the memory allocation system first identifies a bin associated with blocks (“lockers”) of memory large enough to satisfy a memory allocation request. When the identified bin has a free locker, the memory allocation system searches a circular list of headers associated with the identified bin for a collection of lockers (“warehouse”) that contains a locker that is available to be allocated. The memory allocation system allocates the found available locker to satisfy the request. If, however, the allocated bin has no free lockers, the memory allocation system allocates a warehouse with lockers large enough to satisfy the memory allocation request. The memory allocation system then adds a warehouse header for the allocated warehouse to a circular list of warehouse headers associated with the identified bin. The memory allocation system allocates a locker from the newly allocated warehouse to satisfy the memory allocation request.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.