Feedback directed optimization of TCMalloc

Abstract

TCMalloc [9] is an open-source memory allocator. Its use of thread-local caches of free objects enables most allocations/deallocations to be satisfied from thread-local heaps not requiring locks, making it a highly scalable memory allocator for multi-threaded applications. TCMalloc code contains several parameters that control the thread-local caches. The values of these parameters have been carefully chosen to provide good performance for the common case. However, as we will show, the optimal values of these parameters depend upon application-specific memory allocation behavior, so there is no one configuration that attains the optimal performance in all applications.