memory allocator
2 published articles
NLP & ML5 min read
Memory management
Bing found a 12,000-line allocator that breaks a 50-year-old trade-off
Microsoft Research's mimalloc allocator uses thousands of per-page free lists and a clever page-stealing technique to achieve both high concurrency and low memory overhead, breaking a trade-off that constrained systems for decades. A deep-dive from the RiSE group reveals the design.
2026-07-10
AI4 min read
Memory Management
mimalloc, Microsoft's tiny memory workhorse, is quietly powering AI at scale
Microsoft Research's mimalloc memory allocator, designed for high concurrency and large memory scales, is quietly powering AI and cloud services at scale. Its thread-local design with thousands of free lists minimizes contention and delivers both speed and memory efficiency.
2026-07-03