Re: Memory allocator performance in C/C++ compilers

ed mckenzie wrote:


> Am I missing something? Are there other things influencing allocator
> performance besides block size, number of blocks, and allocation
> pattern? Or is VC++'s memory allocator just slower than the other
> compilers? Interestingly, there's a third-party allocator for VC++
> (UltraHeap) that claims similar performance gains over the standard
> 6.0 RTL allocator. Is there a heap benchmark that could measure this
> sort of thing with more accuracy and completeness than a simple test
> program?
>


I think, the best implementation of malloc is dalloc (Doug Lea alloc)
which is developed during many years. Now this is part of GNU libc of
version 2.0. I guess that you used gcc with libc of version 2.0.


You can find dalloc on


http://g.oswego.edu/dl/html/malloc.html


The page contains good explanation of allocation algorithms and
factors which can affect allocation speed.


The simpler and more compact implementation of malloc of Mike Haertel
is in Gnu libc of version 1.0.


I don't know what algorithm does VC use but this is typical example of
advantage of free software development model.


Vladimir Makarov

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