Tertiary Buddy System for Efficient Dynamic Memory Allocation

An extension of the binary buddy system, called “tertiary buddy system" for dynamic storage allocation is presented in this work. Tertiary buddy system allows block sizes of 2 and 3.2 whereas the original binary buddy system allows only block sizes of 2. This extension is achieved at an additional cost of two bits per block. Simulation of the proposed algorithm has been implemented in C programming language. The performance analysis in terms of internal fragmentation for the tertiary buddy system with other existing schemes such as binary buddy system, fibonacci buddy system and weighted buddy system is given in this work. Further the comparison of simulation results for number of splits and average number of merges for the above systems are also being discussed. Key-Words: Tertiary buddy system (TBS), binary buddy system, Fibonacci buddy system, weighted buddy system, internal fragmentation, external fragmentation, dynamic storage allocation and available space list (ASL).