# Memory allocator
Last edited: 2025-03-23
Memory allocator
The memory allocator gets used when a process needs map some physical memory onto its virtual memory . There are two different kinds of allocators:
- Kernel-level allocators: That is used by the kernel to get memory for the kernel state but also the static process state.
- User-level allocators: Dynamic process state on the heap obtained by calls to malloc/free.