when do i need (have to) to use nrf memory manager and when i can use malloc\calloc\free

RE: when do i need (have to) to use nrf memory manager and when i can use malloc\calloc\free

Eyal — Tue, 30 Jun 2020 10:03:33 GMT

ok, thanks for the help.

RE: when do i need (have to) to use nrf memory manager and when i can use malloc\calloc\free

Susheel Nuguru — Tue, 30 Jun 2020 08:22:51 GMT

[quote user="Eyal Gal"]So is that the big advantage of the nordic memory manager ? the heap configuration ?[/quote]

Yes, exactly, that is one main advantage of it.

RE: when do i need (have to) to use nrf memory manager and when i can use malloc\calloc\free

Eyal — Mon, 29 Jun 2020 16:41:23 GMT

Thanks for the reply.

My query was more to understand when should i use the nordic memmory manager instead of libc malloc that arrived with the armgcc toolchain (that comes with segger studio). From looking at the sources they do pretty much the same only you have less control of the heap configuration.

So is that the big advantage of the nordic memory manager ? the heap configuration ?

RE: when do i need (have to) to use nrf memory manager and when i can use malloc\calloc\free

Susheel Nuguru — Mon, 29 Jun 2020 14:08:03 GMT

nRF memory manager was designed to have a memory pool manager for the baremetal solutions which does not have the fancy memory libraries that are in RTOS or any other imported libraries. the malloc available in FreeRTOS should have been enough for you. I am uncertain about the fragmentation benefits of using the nRF memory manager as we have not done side by side benchmarks on this and the one with FreeRTOS.

I would have tried to understand the hardfaults and its contexts before trying to have a overall conclusion on what is better. FreeRTOS have many different heap variations that can be used to best suit the application and i would have strongly thought that these variations would be enough and efficient when using freertos as compared to nRF memory manager.