Memory system and method for dynamically allocating a memory divided

Abstract

A memory system and management method for optimized dynamic memory allocation are disclosed. A memory manager requests a large area of memory from an operating system, and from the viewpoint of the operating system, that memory is fixed. That fixed memory area is then divided up into an integral number of classes, e.g. by the memory manager. Each memory class includes same-size blocks of memory linked together by pointers. The memory block sizes are different for each class, and the sizes of the different class memory blocks are selected to conform to the CPU and memory access bus hardware (e.g. align with a bus bit width) as well as to accommodate the various sizes of data expected to be processed for a particular application. The memory manager maintains a separate, linked list of unused blocks for each class. Each memory block is zeroed initially and after release by a process previously assigned to it. When a block of memory is assigned to a particular process, a flag is set to indicate that it is in use. Incoming messages of variable length are parsed based upon definitions of message structures expected to be received by a particular application. The parsed message or message segment is then stored in an appropriate size memory block.