[dpdk-users] Regarding rte_malloc and linux malloc

[Stephen Hemminger]

On Fri, 10 Feb 2017 10:00:33 +0530
Sakthivel Subramaniam <sakthivelpvs at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi,
> I have some basic doubt about DPDK memory allocation.
> 1. rte_malloc will allocate memory from hugepage memory ?

yes. but remember hugepage memory is limited

> 2. If we use normal malloc, this will be allocated from heap. will this
> allocation also useful for dpdk?

DPDK primary application can use it but you can't pass that memory
to a secondary DPDK process. Also you can't use malloc memory for things
that get DMA'd like packet buffers.

> 3. Or for better performance we have to use only rte_malloc?
The memory from rte_malloc will cause less TLB misses, but on a modern
processor for a small resident set size it probably makes no difference.