Question

Operating System Management

1. kmalloc()
   • Can be used by regular processes as a faster, lower-level version of malloc
   • Allocates memory in the kernel with different priorities
   • Only accepts allocation requests that are evenly divisible by the page size
   • Returns the physical address of allocated memory
   • All of the above

Answer 1

kmalloc()

• Can be used by regular processes as a faster, lower-level version of malloc
• Allocates memory in the kernel with different priorities (correct answer)
• Only accepts allocation requests that are evenly divisible by the page size
• Returns the physical address of allocated memory
• All of the above

Explanation

1.Can be used by regular processes as a faster, lower-level version of malloc

-kmalloc() is not faster. kmalloc() is similar to malloc() but not lower version of malloc()

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2.Allocates memory in the kernel with different priorities

-kmalloc() uses flags to set different priorities.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.Only accepts allocation requests that are evenly divisible by the page size

-In kmalloc() , allocator is page based. It will round up the requested memory to fit into available memory.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

4. Returns the physical address of allocated memory​​​​​​​

-kmalloc() will return the virtual address but not physical address. MMU(memory management unit) will translate the virtual address into physical address.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------​​​​​​​