This new article on the offical AmigaOS 4 website, explains the classic memory alloction system and how the new slab allocation (object cache) system in impoves memory allocation.
"Back in the old days of the original AmigaOS, the system used to allocate areas of unused memory to new tasks was pretty simple. The size and position of blocks of free memory were kept in a list, and when memory was needed the system would traverse this list until it found a block that was sufficiently large. This block was then split, one part returned by the allocator for use, while the other part (whatever part of the block wasn't needed) was left in the free list. This method served its purpose well enough at the time, but with the increased demands of modern computing - and of course our desire to bring this new version of the Operating System to the cutting edge - AmigaOS4.0 has introduced a better way of doing things."
Read the rest
here.
