better malloc/free routines?

[swatt at ittvax.UUCP]

As people may know, the standard malloc(3) function which comes with
V7, 4.1bsd (and I assume USG) is unsuitable for large virtual address
spaces.  It's performance within a 16-bit address space can be pretty
bad as well under some conditions.

I'm looking for better allocate/free routines.  I have already:

  1)	standard v7/4.1bsd malloc (in libc.a)
  2)	alternate malloc.c in /usr/src/new/malloc.c on 4.1.
  3)	vax-specific malloc.c posted to net.sources by utah-cs!thomas,
		December 16, 1982 (utah-cs.1235)

If you have an alternate strategy and can send the source to me, I will
compare all the ones I get and publish the results.  I am only
interested in functions:

	malloc(nbytes), free(ptr), and realloc(ptr, nbytes)

which must be functionally compatible with the standard versions.  They
must provide a general-purpose allocator; i.e. not one that assumes any
special knowledge about patterns of use.

The source must be commented sufficiently to allow me to put in probes
to measure performance and fragmentation.

	- Alan S. Watt
	{decvax, duke, purdue, lbl-csam, research, allegra}!ittvax!swatt
	decvax!ittvax!swatt at Berkeley (Arpanet)