Article

The slab allocator: an object-caching kernel memory allocator

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Jeff BonwickAuthors Info & Claims

USTC'94: Proceedings of the USENIX Summer 1994 Technical Conference on USENIX Summer 1994 Technical Conference - Volume 1

Page 6

Published: 06 June 1994 Publication History

Abstract

This paper presents a comprehensive design overview of the SunOS 5.4 kernel memory allocator. This allocator is based on a set of object-caching primitives that reduce the cost of allocating complex objects by retaining their state between uses. These same primitives prove equally effective for managing stateless memory (e.g. data pages and temporary buffers) because they are space-efficient and fast. The allocator's object caches respond dynamically to global memory pressure, and employ an object-coloring scheme that improves the system's overall cache utilization and bus balance. The allocator also has several statistical and debugging features that can detect a wide range of problems throughout the system.

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Index Terms

The slab allocator: an object-caching kernel memory allocator
1. Software and its engineering
  1. Software organization and properties
    1. Contextual software domains
      1. Operating systems
        Memory management
        Allocation / deallocation strategies
        Garbage collection

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cover image Guide Proceedings

USTC'94: Proceedings of the USENIX Summer 1994 Technical Conference on USENIX Summer 1994 Technical Conference - Volume 1

June 1994

222 pages

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USENIX Association

United States

Publication History

Published: 06 June 1994

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Pi AZhao JWang SZhou XZhang KGherbi AVenkatasubramanian NVeiga L(2021)Memory at your serviceProceedings of the 22nd International Middleware Conference10.1145/3464298.3493394(185-197)Online publication date: 6-Dec-2021
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