vmalloc allocator

• The vmalloc allocator can be used to obtain virtually contiguous memory zones, but not physically contiguous. The requested memory size is rounded up to the next page.

• The allocated area is in the kernel space part of the address space, but outside of the identically-mapped area

• Allocations of fairly large areas is possible, since physical memory fragmentation is not an issue, but areas cannot be used for DMA, as DMA usually requires physically contiguous buffers.

• API in <linux/vmalloc.h>

• void *vmalloc(unsigned long size); Returns a virtual address
• void vfree(void *addr);