Unsafe buffer in RampUp

Posted on March 18, 2016 · 1 min read · tagged with: #RampUpNet #unsafe

As we’re moving towards the core of RampUp, before visiting the most important parts we need to discuss one abstraction provided in the library named IUnsafeBuffer. The abstraction provides an interface a’la Stream wrapping a set of operations over a stream of an unmanaged memory. Currently, there’s only one implementation using VirtualAlloc, but it’s highly probable that in the future memory mapped files will be used as it’s the easiest way of providing a cross-process visible memory. Now let’s take a look at the following members of IUnsafeBuffer

[code language=”csharp”]

public interface IUnsafeBuffer : IDisposable {     int Size { get; }     unsafe byte* RawBytes { get; }

    AtomicLong GetAtomicLong(long index);     AtomicInt GetAtomicInt(long index);     void Write(int offset, ByteChunk chunk);     void ZeroMemory(int start, int length); }

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As you can see the provided methods are a bit similar to the operations provided by the Stream. Currently pointer is leaked with RawBytes, but this is a subject to change. What’s important, the unsafe buffer provides way to get atomic wrappers when needed. The atomics are designed to be used with any unmanaged memory provider, especially with IUnsafeBuffer. This API will be needed in creating the next data structure in RampUp