virtual memory reservation and a private pool of memory pages -- by a scheme
based on memory pools.
This allows better utilization of memory because buffers can now be allocated
with a granularity finer than the system's native page size (useful for
filesystems with e.g. 1k or 2k fragment sizes). It also avoids fragmentation
of virtual to physical memory mappings (due to the former fixed virtual
address reservation) resulting in better utilization of MMU resources on some
platforms. Finally, the scheme is more flexible by allowing run-time decisions
on the amount of memory to be used for buffers.
On the other hand, the effectiveness of the LRU queue for buffer recycling
may be somewhat reduced compared to the traditional method since, due to the
nature of the pool based memory allocation, the actual least recently used
buffer may release its memory to a pool different from the one needed by a
newly allocated buffer. However, this effect will kick in only if the
system is under memory pressure.
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