Off-heap direct-memory data stores, methods of creating and/or managing off-heap direct-memory data stores, and/or systems including off-heap direct memory data store

A computer system, comprising:

• at least one processor;
• a non-transitory computer readable storage medium tangibly storing data;
• a software application executable by the at least one processor and programmed to make use of the data;
• and
• off-heap memory, dynamically allocated and directly managed by a memory manager, such that the off-heap memory is perceivable by the software application as being a part of local application tier memory and manageable, after initial allocation, independent of other memory managers of the computer system and of an operating system running on the computer system,
• wherein the off-heap memory is scalable up to a size of the computer system's memory, upon direction from the memory manager, and
• wherein the memory manager is configured to at least:
• (a) attempt to allocate first data containers in chunks of a preconfigured maximum size in response to a request for off-heap memory at a predetermined maximum size;
• (b) repeat said attempts to allocate first data containers until the off-heap memory is created at the predetermined size, or until an attempt fails, whichever comes first;
• (c) reduce the preconfigured maximum size and repeat (a)-(b) in response to an attempt to allocate first data containers failing;
• (d) receive a request for a region of the off-heap memory, the region having an associated size;
• (e) find, via a second data container source, an unused slice of the off-heap memory;
• (f) return a second data container indicative of the unused slice, the second data container being a wrapped first data container that includes a reference to the slice where data is to be stored and a reference to an allocator object that created the slice;
• (g) continue to return second data containers until the off-heap memory is exhausted;
• and
• (h) manage the returned second data containers from the off-heap memory as a logical address space storing data keys and values.