Week5

David Sheaffer

Due: Friday October 26th during scheduled recitation time.

Research the various heap allocation algorithms, such as first fit, best-fit,

the Buddy System, Fibonacci heap, etc. Discuss their pros and cons. When

would certain algorithms be better than others (words being of uniform size,

having an abundance of small objects and a few large, having many small,

having many large, etc.)?

Kristin Burke

Due: Friday October 26th during scheduled recitation time.

Research Vmalloc, by Kiem-Phong Vo and compare it to a standard malloc

implementation, such as BSD malloc. Information on both topics can be

found via the web.

Jason Campbell

Due: Friday October 26th during scheduled recitation time.

Discuss Java threads as they relate to concurrent program, and discuss the utilities

that Java employs to conserve data integrity (semaphores, monitors, etc.).

Stacy Sayre

Due: Friday October 26th during scheduled recitation time.

Read section 7.7.3 of the textbook.

Discuss garbage collection as presented here, and the topics of reference counts and

mark-and-sweep colletion.

Rohith Gowda

Due: Friday October 26th during scheduled recitation time.

Find information on G++ Malloc by Doug Lea. Explain how it handles issues of

memory management, such as speed, locality, fragmentation, etc.

Nikhil Bandodkar

Due: Friday October 26th during scheduled recitation time.

The storage allocation operation malloc in C is often implemented as a call

on the storage allocator provided by the operating system. The operating

system provides a central heap, used by all programs, malloc (and free)

allocate (and return) storage when called from your C program form this

central heap. Because malloc requires a call to the operating system for

this service, it can be a time-consuming operation. An alternative

implementation of malloc provides a local heap storage area within

each C program. Here malloc use is inexpensive.

Investigate a C implementation to determine the cost of using malloc as

provided in C for this purpose. Compare that cost to an implementation

of a heap and a malloc that you could do yourself as part of your program.

Assume all the blocks are of the same size (all of your artificial mallocs

will allocate the same size block) and assume unlimited space (design your implementation to stay within your preallocated space).

Truman Costello

Due: Friday October 26th during scheduled recitation time.

Discuss the Boehm-Demers-Weiser conservative garbage collector, available

on the web. Be sure to access any pertinent comparisons of such things as

fragmentation, speed, memory usage, etc.

Bryan Spaulding

Due: Friday October 26th during scheduled recitation time.

Compare the overloaded and polymorphism method in C/C++ and Java. If necessary, ask the instructor for advice on this topic.