Methods and apparatus provide for associating memory allocation table (MAT) entries with nodes in a binary tree such that the nodes and the entries are grouped into hierarchical levels, each entry including status information; associating the nodes and the entries with segments of a shared memory of a multi-processor system such that higher level nodes and entries are associated with larger numbers of segments of the shared memory and lower level nodes and entries are associated with smaller numbers of segments of the shared memory; initializing the MAT such that the status information of at least a plurality of entries indicates that the associated segment or segments of the shared memory are available for reservation; and selecting one entry in a group of entries in the MAT at a level corresponding to a desired size of the shared memory to be reserved.