Succinct Memory Identifiers for Scalable Allocation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional memory allocation using pointers is inefficient due to significant memory space requirements and performance costs associated with compression and decompression, especially when dealing with small data sizes relative to large pointer sizes.
Innovation Solution
Implementing memory allocation using succinct identifiers such as slab identifiers and hash function identifiers, which reduce the bit length and storage requirements, allowing for faster look-ups and updates, and enabling increased fanout in data structures like radix trees and B-trees, thereby reducing the number of memory accesses and page faults.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If traditional 64-bit pointers are used to store memory addresses, then the memory address space is sufficient to cover the entire addressable memory, but the memory space consumed by pointers is large and the access efficiency is low
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments a 64-bit memory address into multiple components: a 44-bit base address, a 10-bit offset, and additional metadata fields. This segmentation allows the pointer to be stored more efficiently while still providing full 64-bit address space coverage, reducing the effective storage requirement from 64 bits to a compressed format that includes the base address, offset, and metadata
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements nested compression by placing compressed pointer data within data structure nodes. The compressed pointer format embeds multiple levels of information including the base address, offset, and metadata about the pointed-to data, creating a nested structure that maximizes information density while minimizing storage space
2Quantity of substance
If pointer compression is applied to reduce memory space, then the memory space requirement is reduced, but the complexity of managing compressed pointers of varying sizes increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the parameters of the pointer representation from a fixed 64-bit format to a structured format with fixed field widths (44-bit base address, 10-bit offset, metadata fields). This parameter standardization eliminates the variability problem while still achieving compression, as the total size is reduced from 64 bits to a standardized compressed format that is easier to manage
3Quantity of substance
If compression and decompression are applied to pointers, then the memory space is reduced, but the performance and latency cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary organization of memory into base address regions with associated metadata before compression is needed. By pre-organizing memory into manageable base address blocks with metadata about their contents, the system eliminates the need for complex real-time compression and decompression operations, as the data is already in an optimized format for efficient access
4Quantity of substance
If higher compression ratios are achieved by compressing more data, then the memory space is reduced, but the cost to compress and decompress increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and separates the metadata information about pointed-to data from the pointer itself, storing it in dedicated metadata fields within the compressed pointer structure. This extraction allows the system to achieve high compression ratios by efficiently representing only the essential addressing information (base address and offset) while storing additional data characteristics separately, reducing the computational overhead of compression and decompression
Data Source
AI summary
A method and device generates a slab identifier and a hash function identifier in response to a memory allocation request with a request identifier and allocation size from a memory allocation requestor. The slab identifier indicates a memory region associated with a base data size and the hash function identifier indicates a hash function. The method and device provides a bit string including the slab identifier and the hash function identifier to the memory allocation requestor.