source: doc/theses/mubeen_zulfiqar_MMath/allocator.tex @ a41e87b

\chapter{Allocator}

\newpage
\paragraph{Design 1: Decentralized}
Fixed number of heaps: shard the heap into N heaps each with a bump-area allocated from the sbrk area.
Kernel threads (KT) are assigned to the N heaps.
When KTs $\le$ N, the heaps are uncontented.
When KTs $>$ N, the heaps are contented.
By adjusting N, this approach reduces storage at the cost of speed due to contention.
In all cases, a thread acquires/releases a lock, contented or uncontented.
\begin{cquote}
\centering
\input{AllocDS1}
\end{cquote}
Problems: need to know when a KT is created and destroyed to know when to create/delete the KT's heap.
On KT deletion, its heap freed-storage needs to be distributed somewhere.

\paragraph{Design 2: Centralized}

One heap, but lower bucket sizes are N-shared across KTs.
This design leverages the fact that 95\% of allocation requests are less than 512 bytes and there are only 3--5 different request sizes.
When KTs $\le$ N, the important bucket sizes are uncontented.
When KTs $>$ N, the free buckets are contented.
Therefore, threads are only contending for a small number of buckets, which are distributed among them to reduce contention.
\begin{cquote}
\centering
\input{AllocDS2}
\end{cquote}
Problems: need to know when a kernel thread (KT) is created and destroyed to know when to assign a shared bucket-number.
When no thread is assigned a bucket number, its free storage is unavailable.
It is possible to use sharing and stealing techniques to share/find unused storage, when a free list is unused or empty.