--- a/src/os/posix/vm/os_posix.cpp	Thu Mar 28 10:27:28 2013 +0100
+++ b/src/os/posix/vm/os_posix.cpp	Wed Mar 27 19:21:18 2013 +0100
@@ -188,4 +188,66 @@
   st->cr();
 }
 
+bool os::has_allocatable_memory_limit(julong* limit) {
+  struct rlimit rlim;
+  int getrlimit_res = getrlimit(RLIMIT_AS, &rlim);
+  // if there was an error when calling getrlimit, assume that there is no limitation
+  // on virtual memory.
+  bool result;
+  if ((getrlimit_res != 0) || (rlim.rlim_cur == RLIM_INFINITY)) {
+    result = false;
+  } else {
+    *limit = (julong)rlim.rlim_cur;
+    result = true;
+  }
+#ifdef _LP64
+  return result;
+#else
+  // arbitrary virtual space limit for 32 bit Unices found by testing. If
+  // getrlimit above returned a limit, bound it with this limit. Otherwise
+  // directly use it.
+  const julong max_virtual_limit = (julong)3800*M;
+  if (result) {
+    *limit = MIN2(*limit, max_virtual_limit);
+  } else {
+    *limit = max_virtual_limit;
+  }
 
+  // bound by actually allocatable memory. The algorithm uses two bounds, an
+  // upper and a lower limit. The upper limit is the current highest amount of
+  // memory that could not be allocated, the lower limit is the current highest
+  // amount of memory that could be allocated.
+  // The algorithm iteratively refines the result by halving the difference
+  // between these limits, updating either the upper limit (if that value could
+  // not be allocated) or the lower limit (if the that value could be allocated)
+  // until the difference between these limits is "small".
+
+  // the minimum amount of memory we care about allocating.
+  const julong min_allocation_size = M;
+
+  julong upper_limit = *limit;
+
+  // first check a few trivial cases
+  if (is_allocatable(upper_limit) || (upper_limit <= min_allocation_size)) {
+    *limit = upper_limit;
+  } else if (!is_allocatable(min_allocation_size)) {
+    // we found that not even min_allocation_size is allocatable. Return it
+    // anyway. There is no point to search for a better value any more.
+    *limit = min_allocation_size;
+  } else {
+    // perform the binary search.
+    julong lower_limit = min_allocation_size;
+    while ((upper_limit - lower_limit) > min_allocation_size) {
+      julong temp_limit = ((upper_limit - lower_limit) / 2) + lower_limit;
+      temp_limit = align_size_down_(temp_limit, min_allocation_size);
+      if (is_allocatable(temp_limit)) {
+        lower_limit = temp_limit;
+      } else {
+        upper_limit = temp_limit;
+      }
+    }
+    *limit = lower_limit;
+  }
+  return true;
+#endif
+}