Memory allocation apparatus and method

A non-transitory, computer readable recording medium having stored thereon a computer executable program adapted to cause a computer system to perform actions, comprising:

• allocating one or more regions of physical working memory for use by an application, the regions individually comprising contiguous physical memory segments, but the regions not necessarily being contiguous between themselves;
• generating a segment address table having at least as many entries as the total number of physical memory segments allocated to the application;
• populating entries of the segment address table sequentially and contiguously with the physical addresses of the physical memory segments across the or each region in order;
• presenting to the application a contiguous virtual addressable space having at least as many virtual memory segments as the total number of physical memory segments allocated to the application;
• and
• mapping from virtual memory addresses to physical memory addresses by reference to the segment address table.

A memory allocation apparatus, comprising

• physical working memory;
• an application processor adapted to run an application;
• an allocation processor adapted to allocate one or more regions of physical working memory for use by an application, the regions individually comprising contiguous physical memory segments, but the regions not necessarily being contiguous between themselves;
• a memory manager adapted to generate a segment address table having at least as many entries as the total number of physical memory segments allocated to the application;
• the memory manager being adapted to populate entries of the segment address table sequentially and contiguously with the physical addresses of the physical memory segments across the or each region in order;
• the memory manager being adapted to present to the application a contiguous virtual addressable space having at least as many virtual memory segments as the total number of physical memory segments allocated to the application;
• and
• the memory manager being adapted to map from virtual memory addresses to physical memory addresses by reference to the segment address table.