# Function malloc

Source

    pub unsafe extern "C" fn malloc(size: usize) -> *mut c_void

🔬This is a nightly-only experimental API. (`stdarch_nvptx` #111199)
Available on `target_arch="nvptx64"` only.
Expand description

Allocate memory dynamically from a fixed-size heap in global memory.

The CUDA in-kernel `malloc()` function allocates at least `size` bytes from the device heap and returns a pointer to the allocated memory or `NULL` if insufficient memory exists to fulfill the request.

The returned pointer is guaranteed to be aligned to a 16-byte boundary.

The memory allocated by a given CUDA thread via `malloc()` remains allocated for the lifetime of the CUDA context, or until it is explicitly released by a call to `free()`. It can be used by any other CUDA threads even from subsequent kernel launches.

Sources: Programming Guide, PTX Interoperability.