osdev-memory-management

What problem does it solve?

This Skill provides a complete reference and practical guidance for implementing physical and virtual memory allocation in OS kernels, eliminating common pitfalls like allocating reserved regions, fragmentation, and incorrect alignment.

Core Features & Use Cases

• Memory map parsing: how to parse Multiboot and UEFI memory maps and mark usable versus reserved regions.
• Physical frame allocators: implementations and trade-offs for bitmap, stack, and buddy allocators with hinting and region marking strategies.
• Kernel heap designs: slab allocator internals, size-class bins for kmalloc/kfree, and coalescing strategies for general-purpose heaps.
• Use Case: implement a 4KB-aligned physical frame allocator, add a slab-backed cache for frequent kernel objects, and provide a kmalloc/kfree front-end for variable-size kernel allocations.

Quick Start

Use the osdev-memory-management skill to design a bitmap-based physical frame allocator and a slab-backed kernel heap for a hobby kernel.