An Improvement of TLSF Algorithm

Abstract

Memory management has become an important part in developing real-time and embedded applications. The conventional dynamic storage allocation (DSA) algorithms have been considered inappropriate for real-time applications due to the unbounded response time and fragmentation problem. There are some new allocators designed to meet the requirements nowadays. Two-Level Segregated Fit memory allocator (TLSF) was proposed and widely used in the Real-Time Operating Systems (RTOS) like RTLinux. It has a bounded response time and quite good performance. However, there are still some problems with this algorithm and it could be improved. Here we discuss some improvements of the TLSF algorithm. Experiments show it has low fragmentation and faster response time.