From owner-freebsd-hackers Tue Feb 27 11:43:45 2001 Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from hand.dotat.at (sfo-gw.covalent.net [207.44.198.62]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4679A37B719 for ; Tue, 27 Feb 2001 11:43:42 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from fanf@dotat.at) Received: from fanf by hand.dotat.at with local (Exim 3.20 #3) id 14Xq13-0003xx-00; Tue, 27 Feb 2001 19:42:33 +0000 Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2001 19:42:33 +0000 From: Tony Finch To: "Daniel C. Sobral" Cc: freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Setting memory allocators for library functions. Message-ID: <20010227194233.J609@hand.dotat.at> References: <200102260529.f1Q5T8413011@curve.dellroad.org> <200102260628.f1Q6SYX29811@earth.backplane.com> <3A9A0A9A.E4D31F97@newsguy.com> <200102261755.f1QHtvr34064@earth.backplane.com> <3A9AAB02.793A197A@newsguy.com> <200102261940.f1QJeJi38115@earth.backplane.com> <3A9B6548.E298F857@newsguy.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.2.5i In-Reply-To: <3A9B6548.E298F857@newsguy.com> Organization: Covalent Technologies, Inc Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG "Daniel C. Sobral" wrote: >Matt Dillon wrote: >> >> What is the point of running a scientific calculation if the >> machine turns into a sludge pile and would otherwise cause the >> calculation to take years to complete instead of days? > >It doesn't trash. The memory is filled with backtracking information. >Memory in active use at any time is rather small. I've read articles about programs which use GC which have a small working set, although it is constantly changing (I've heard of programs allocating megabytes a second). The OS would have to swap out the stale pages if the program's total memory use exceeds RAM, and when the GC finally runs it will take forever and thrash swap like there's no tomorrow. Tony. -- f.a.n.finch fanf@covalent.net dot@dotat.at THAMES: EAST OR SOUTHEAST 3 OR 4. RAIN. MODERATE OR GOOD. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message