User specifiable allocation of memory for processes in a multiprocessor computer having a non-uniform memory architecture
US6505286B1 · kind B1 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Sep 22, 2000 |
| Grant date | Jan 7, 2003 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Sep 22, 2020 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F12/1072
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A method for a user process to specify a policy for allocating pages of physical memory on the nodes of a multinode multiprocessor computer system. Through means such as a system call, an application program can specify to the operating system that physical pages of memory for an application-specified portion of virtual address space are to be physically allocated upon a specified set of nodes, subject to the additional selection criteria that the pages are to be allocated at first reference upon: 1) the node upon which the reference first occurs; 2) the node which has the most free memory, or 3) that the pages should be evenly distributed across the indicated set of nodes. In effect, the operating system remembers the specified allocation policy and node set from which the physical pages can be subsequently allocated as established by a system call. Subsequent use of the virtual address space for which the allocation policy is defined results in the memory being allocated accordingly. In this way, an application program can use memory with the memory-locality most advantageous to it. The preferred embodiments of the invention include extensions to the mmap and shmget functions of …
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.