NAlloc

NAlloc is a configurable memory allocation framework designed for high-performance, low-latency software systems. It provides a family of allocators that can be tuned to workload characteristics, from many small allocations to large, long-lived objects. The design emphasizes low contention, data locality, and predictable behavior across cores and platforms.

Core components include a central allocator manager and per-thread arenas. Most allocations are served from a thread’s local arena to minimize synchronization, with a global pool or back-end used for cross-thread cases. Memory is organized into size-class pools or slabs to enable fast, near-constant-time allocations for common sizes. NAlloc offers an API compatible with malloc/free and provides extension points for debugging, leak detection, and statistics collection. It can be linked with the system heap or implemented with custom back-ends such as slab, buddy, or paging strategies.

Concurrency and memory management: The per-thread design reduces cross-thread locking. Free lists may be lock-free or protected by lightweight synchronization. Deferred reclamation handles objects freed by other threads. Fragmentation control is achieved through pooling strategies and optional defragmentation heuristics, with configuration options for alignment and growth behavior.

Usage and provenance: In academic and practitioner literature, NAlloc is used as an illustrative allocator design to discuss tradeoffs in locality, latency, and memory overhead. Real-world implementations often adapt the same patterns for game engines, real-time systems, or high-load servers where deterministic allocation behavior is valued.