# PIM-malloc: A Fast and Scalable Dynamic Memory Allocator for Processing-In-Memory (PIM) Architectures

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.13002 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.13002/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 19 May 2025.

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [PATTON: Enabling Commodity PIM for Production LLM Serving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.11392/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

The ability to dynamically allocate memory is fundamental in modern programming languages. However, this feature is not adequately supported in current general-purpose PIM devices. To identify key design principles that PIM must consider, we conduct a design space exploration of PIM memory allocators, examining various strategies for metadata placement and management of the allocator. Based on this exploration, we introduce PIM-malloc, a fast and scalable memory allocator for general-purpose PIM that operates on real PIM hardware, achieving a x66 improvement in memory allocation performance. This design is further enhanced with a lightweight, per-PIM core hardware cache, specifically designed for dynamic memory allocation, achieving an additional 31% performance improvement. Finally, we demonstrate the applicability of PIM-malloc by developing several representative PIM workloads, demonstrating its effectiveness in enhancing programmability.