<s>
The	O
SLOB	B-Application
(	O
simple	O
list	O
of	O
blocks	O
)	O
allocator	O
is	O
one	O
of	O
three	O
available	O
memory	B-General_Concept
allocators	I-General_Concept
in	O
the	O
Linux	B-Operating_System
kernel	I-Operating_System
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
other	O
two	O
are	O
SLAB	B-General_Concept
(	O
slab	B-General_Concept
allocator	I-General_Concept
)	O
and	O
SLUB	B-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
SLOB	B-Application
allocator	O
is	O
designed	O
to	O
require	O
little	O
memory	O
for	O
the	O
implementation	O
and	O
housekeeping	O
,	O
for	O
use	O
in	O
small	O
systems	O
such	O
as	O
embedded	O
systems	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Unfortunately	O
,	O
a	O
major	O
limitation	O
of	O
the	O
SLOB	B-Application
allocator	O
is	O
that	O
it	O
suffers	O
greatly	O
from	O
external	O
fragmentation	B-Architecture
.	O
</s>
<s>
SLOB	B-Application
currently	O
uses	O
a	O
first-fit	O
algorithm	O
,	O
which	O
uses	O
the	O
first	O
available	O
space	O
for	O
memory	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
2008	O
,	O
a	O
reply	O
from	O
Linus	O
Torvalds	O
on	O
a	O
Linux	B-Operating_System
mailing	O
list	O
was	O
made	O
where	O
he	O
suggested	O
the	O
use	O
of	O
a	O
best-fit	B-Algorithm
algorithm	I-Algorithm
,	O
which	O
tries	O
to	O
find	O
a	O
memory	O
block	O
which	O
suits	O
needs	O
best	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Best	B-Algorithm
fit	I-Algorithm
finds	O
the	O
smallest	O
space	O
which	O
fits	O
the	O
required	O
amount	O
available	O
,	O
avoiding	O
loss	O
of	O
performance	O
,	O
both	O
by	O
fragmentation	B-Architecture
and	O
consolidation	O
of	O
memory	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
By	O
default	O
,	O
Linux	B-Operating_System
kernel	I-Operating_System
used	O
a	B-General_Concept
SLAB	I-General_Concept
Allocation	I-General_Concept
system	I-General_Concept
until	O
version	O
2.6.23	O
,	O
when	O
SLUB	B-Application
allocation	O
became	O
the	O
default	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
When	O
the	O
CONFIG_SLAB	O
flag	O
is	O
disabled	O
,	O
the	O
kernel	B-Operating_System
falls	O
back	O
to	O
using	O
the	O
SLOB	B-Application
allocator	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
SLOB	B-Application
allocator	O
was	O
used	O
in	O
DSLinux	O
on	O
Nintendo	B-Device
DS	I-Device
handheld	B-Application
console	I-Application
.	O
</s>
