Memory Management Algorithms and Implementation in C/C+

by Bill Blunden

Memory Management: Algorithms and Implementation in C/C++ presents several concrete implementations of garbage collection and explicit memory management algorithms. Every implementation is... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1556223471
• ISBN13: 9781556223471
• Release Date: October 2002
• Publisher: Jones & Bartlett Publishers
• Length: 386 Pages
• Weight: 1.46 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.9" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Excellent book

Might not be the book can be put into immediate use, but definitely bring your understanding of memory management to another level, the author has a gift to make complex topic easy to grasp, for example, "Siege Warfare" is used in the case study of Linux to demonstrate memory protection. Where source code is used like the manual memory manager, it's always kept as simple as possible, I appreciate Bill made effort for the reader to "get it" instead of impressing them with syntactic acrobatics. The quotes from the first three chapters are: "Everyone has a photographic memory. Some people just don't have film." -- Mel Brooks "If I could remember the names of all these particles, I'd be a botanist." -- Enrico Fermi "My problem is that I have been persecuted by an integer." -- George A. Miller The author runs out of quote from chapter 4, even thouth, the book still worth a five star given the enlightenment and fun I got from reading, by the way, the author never loses humor even handling the driest topic, makes technical reading an entertainment. The closing quotes at the last page of the book sounds rather like a prophets: "We are the middle children of history, raised by television to believe that someday we'll be millionaires and movie stars and rock stars, but we won't." -- Tyler Durden "In time, you will come to regard me with not only awe and respect, but love." -- Colossus, speaking to Charles Forbin in Colossus: The Forbin Project (1969)

Nuts and Bolts Perspective

While a lot of books on computer memory end up abstracting their discussion somehow, Blunden's book lies at the opposite end of the spectrum. All aspects of computer memory are examined (hardware level, OS level, application level) and in each instance concrete, non-trivial, examples are presented. Nothing, and I mean nothing, is left to the imagination. This book is nothing short of an exhaustive look at memory management. Engineers interested in this traditionally neglected topic should buy this book!Having read other reviews, I will agree that the material in the last chapter is just a little prophetic.

The whole enchillada!

This is probably the only book I have ever bought that actually gave a discussion on protected mode that I could follow. He does keep the discussion basic (flat model, no paging), but it got me over the hurdle. I also liked his high-level memory managers. They were to the point and easy to understand. No fancy syntax, no cryptic pointer swizzling,... just straightforward code. What Blunden provides is a solid foundation that has a low learning threshold. Finally, Blunden speaks to the reader in a casual manner, as if you were sipping high-octane coffee somewhere on El Camino BigNum.

No holds barred (NHB programming)

As a public servant involved in technical copyright work, I normally don't stray too far from my area of specialy. However, a friend of mine recommended this book and I picked it up at a local bookstore. This book does a nice job of looking at the countless little details that come into play when dealing with a computer's memory. What was once very easy for hackers to fiddle with in 1981 is now a nasty ordeal. Fortunately you'll have this book to guide you. Nice explanation of the A20 address gate. One thing I didn't expect was a look behind all the marketing hype behind Moore's Law. The last chapter is somewhat ominous, and it makes you wonder if the author has been to John Young's web site. TIA is closer than you think...

If you didn't know, now you know

Look out for the name Bill Blunden if you're a systems programmer. In my opinion this man will be one of the best known authors in this area in the next decade. I bought this book thinking all I will get was details on garbage collection algorithms but the author actually takes the reader through memory management at the hardware level in an easy to follow manner. He also reviews how 3 different operating systems actually manage memory.After this, he then jumps into the high level details of memory management for applications. If you're a system programmer, do yourself a favour and buy this book. However, it should be noted that this book is not for the inexperienced. It digs into low level stuff and also assumes that the reader is fluent in C/C++ and assembly.