NBBS: A Non-Blocking Buddy System for Multi-Core Machines

Common implementations of core memory allocation components handle concurrent allocation/release requests by synchronizing threads via spin-locks. This approach is not prone to scale, a problem that has been addressed in the literature by introducing layered allocation services or replicating the co...

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Published in:IEEE transactions on computers Vol. 71; no. 3; pp. 599 - 612
Main Authors: Marotta, Romolo, Ianni, Mauro, Pellegrini, Alessandro, Quaglia, Francesco
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: New York IEEE 01.03.2022
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
Subjects:
back-end memory allocation
buddy system
Data structures
Firmware
Instruction sets
Materials handling
Memory management
Message systems
Microprocessors
Non-blocking algorithms
Proposals
Resource management
Scalability
shared-memory algorithms
Synchronism
ISSN:0018-9340, 1557-9956
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Abstract Common implementations of core memory allocation components handle concurrent allocation/release requests by synchronizing threads via spin-locks. This approach is not prone to scale, a problem that has been addressed in the literature by introducing layered allocation services or replicating the core allocators-the bottom-most ones within the layered architecture. Both these solutions tend to reduce the pressure of actual concurrent accesses to each individual core allocator. In this article, we explore an alternative approach to scalability of memory allocation/release, which can be still combined with those literature proposals. We present a fully non-blocking buddy system, where threads performing concurrent allocations/releases do not undergo any spin-lock based synchronization. Our solution allows threads to proceed in parallel, and commit their allocations/releases unless a conflict is materialized while handling the allocator metadata-memory fragmentation and coalescing are also carried out in a fully non-blocking manner. Conflict detection relies in our solution on atomic Read-Modify-Write (RMW) machine instructions, guaranteed to execute atomically by the processor firmware. We also provide a proof of the correctness of our non-blocking buddy system and show the results of an experimental study that outlines the effectiveness of our solution.
AbstractList Common implementations of core memory allocation components handle concurrent allocation/release requests by synchronizing threads via spin-locks. This approach is not prone to scale, a problem that has been addressed in the literature by introducing layered allocation services or replicating the core allocators-the bottom-most ones within the layered architecture. Both these solutions tend to reduce the pressure of actual concurrent accesses to each individual core allocator. In this article, we explore an alternative approach to scalability of memory allocation/release, which can be still combined with those literature proposals. We present a fully non-blocking buddy system, where threads performing concurrent allocations/releases do not undergo any spin-lock based synchronization. Our solution allows threads to proceed in parallel, and commit their allocations/releases unless a conflict is materialized while handling the allocator metadata-memory fragmentation and coalescing are also carried out in a fully non-blocking manner. Conflict detection relies in our solution on atomic Read-Modify-Write (RMW) machine instructions, guaranteed to execute atomically by the processor firmware. We also provide a proof of the correctness of our non-blocking buddy system and show the results of an experimental study that outlines the effectiveness of our solution.
Author Marotta, Romolo
Ianni, Mauro
Pellegrini, Alessandro
Quaglia, Francesco
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  organization: University of Rome Tor Vergata, Roma, Italy
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SubjectTerms back-end memory allocation
buddy system
Data structures
Firmware
Instruction sets
Materials handling
Memory management
Message systems
Microprocessors
Non-blocking algorithms
Proposals
Resource management
Scalability
shared-memory algorithms
Synchronism
Title NBBS: A Non-Blocking Buddy System for Multi-Core Machines
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