A Weighted Buddy Method for Dynamic Storage Allocation
An extension of the buddy method, called the weighted
buddy method, for dynamic storage allocation 
is presented.  The weighted buddy method allows block
sizes of 2^k and 3(2^k), whereas the original buddy 
method allowed only block sizes of 2^k. This extension
is achieved at an additional cost of only two 
bits per block.  Simulation results are presented which
compare this method with the buddy method.  These 
results indicate that for a uniform request distribution,
the buddy system has less total memory fragmentation 
than the weighted buddy algorithm.  However, the total
fragmentation is smaller for the weighted buddy 
method when the requests are for exponentially distributed block sizes.
CACM October, 1974
Shen, K. K.
Peterson, J. L.
