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Method and apparatus for detecting references to deallocated memory in a dynamic memory allocation system

  • US 5,559,980 A
  • Filed: 03/18/1993
  • Issued: 09/24/1996
  • Est. Priority Date: 03/18/1993
  • Status: Expired due to Fees
First Claim
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1. A dynamic memory allocation system having an address space comprising a plurality of non-overlapping address-space pages, each address-space page including a plurality of addresses of the address space, the system comprising:

  • a memory comprising a plurality of non-overlapping memory pages, each memory page including a plurality of memory locations each having a corresponding first address for use in accessing that memory location;

    a memory map for representing a mapping of addresses from the address space to the memory locations, the memory map representing a mapping of the addresses from a first portion of the address space that presently resides in the memory to the memory locations;

    memory allocating means (42) responsive to a dynamic memory allocation request, for allocating to a requestor a memory location from a memory page having at least one other memory location already allocated in response to another dynamic memory allocation request, mapping to the allocated memory location a second address from an address-space page none of whose included addresses are presently mapped to memory locations, and giving the second address to the requestor for referencing the allocated memory location;

    memory deallocating means (43) responsive to a dynamic memory deallocation request, for deallocating the allocated memory location from the requestor and canceling the mapping of the second address to the deallocated memory location; and

    address translating means (41) responsive to the requestor referencing the deallocated memory location with the second address, for using the memory map to translate the second address to the deallocated memory location'"'"'s first address, the address translating means failing to accomplish the translation if the mapping of the second address to the deallocated memory location is not represented in the memory map, whereby the reference by the requestor to the deallocated memory location is detected.

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