Please be aware that **`BuddyAllocator` always allocate aligned memory**, aligned on 32-bytes, which can hold a `BuddyAllocator::Block` object:
```cpp
classBuddyAllocator{
private:
structBlock{
size_tsize;
Block*left,right;
size_tindex;// allocator id
};
...
};
```
Because BuddyAllocator has the meta-data of each block, it can trace the used memory -- record the amount returned by `Alloc` freed in `Free`. Instead, `CPUAllocator` and `GPUAllocator` doesn't know the size of freed memory block and cannot do the trace.
#### System Allocators
The `GPUAllocator` and `CPUAllocator` are calls *system allocators*. They work as the fallback allocators of `BuddyAllocator`.
## Justification
I got inspiration from Majel and Caffe2, though above design look different from both.
### Caffe2
In Caffe2, `Tensor<Context>::mutable_data()` allocates the memroy. In particular, [`Tensor<Context>::mutable_data`](https://github.com/caffe2/caffe2/blob/v0.7.0/caffe2/core/tensor.h#L523) calls [`Tensor<Context>::raw_mutable_data`](https://github.com/caffe2/caffe2/blob/v0.7.0/caffe2/core/tensor.h#L459), which in turn calls [`Context::New`](https://github.com/caffe2/caffe2/blob/v0.7.0/caffe2/core/tensor.h#L479).
There are two implementations of `Context`:
1.[`CPUContext`](https://github.com/caffe2/caffe2/blob/v0.7.0/caffe2/core/context.h#L105), whose [`New` method](https://github.com/caffe2/caffe2/blob/v0.7.0/caffe2/core/context.h#L131) calls [`g_cpu_allocator.get()->New(size_t)`](https://github.com/caffe2/caffe2/blob/v0.7.0/caffe2/core/context.cc#L15) to allocate the memory.
1.[`CUDAContext`](https://github.com/caffe2/caffe2/blob/v0.7.0/caffe2/core/context_gpu.h#L99), which has a data member [`int gpu_id_`](https://github.com/caffe2/caffe2/blob/v0.7.0/caffe2/core/context_gpu.h#L202). This looks very similar to class `majel::GPUPlace`, who also has an `int id_` data member. `CUDAContext::New(size_t)` calls [`g_cub_allocator->DeviceAllocate(&ptr, nbytes)`](https://github.com/caffe2/caffe2/blob/v0.7.0/caffe2/core/context_gpu.cu#L355) to allocate the memory.
### Majel
In Majel, there are basically two allocator types:
1.`cpu::SystemAllocator`, which has similar functionality to `caffe2::CPUContext::New/Delete`.
1.`gpu::SystemAllocator`, which has similar functionality to `caffe2::CUDAContext::New/Delete`.
However, memory allocation is not via these two allocators. Instead, these two allocators are defined in hidden namespaces.
Programs allocate memory via a BuddyAllocator, which can take the `g_cpu_allocator` or a `g_gpu_allocators[gpu_id]` as its *fallback allocator*, so that if BuddyAllocator cannot find a block in its memory pool, it extends its memory pool by calling the fallback allocator's `New(size_t)`.
Please check out the [design documentation](http://gangliao.me) to find out more details about
