Talk:Fragmentation (computing)

Computing Start‑class Mid‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Computing, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of computers, computing, and information technology on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.ComputingWikipedia:WikiProject ComputingTemplate:WikiProject ComputingComputing
Start	This article has been rated as Start-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

Computer science Unassessed

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Computer science, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Computer science related articles on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Computer scienceWikipedia:WikiProject Computer scienceTemplate:WikiProject Computer scienceComputer science

???

This article has not yet received a rating on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.

???

This article has not yet received a rating on the project's importance scale.

Things you can help WikiProject Computer science with:

Here are some tasks awaiting attention:

Article requests :
- Requested articles/Applied arts and sciences/Computer science, computing, and Internet
Cleanup :
- Computer science articles needing attention
- Computer science articles needing expert attention
Copyedit :
- Computing
Expand :
- Computer science
Infobox :
- Computer science articles without infoboxes
Maintain :
- Timeline of computing 2020–present
Photo :
- Find pictures for the biographies of computer scientists (see List of computer scientists)
- Computing articles needing images
Stubs :
- Computer science stubs
Unreferenced :
- WikiProject Computer science/Unreferenced BLPs
Project-related :
- Tag all relevant articles in Category:Computer science and sub-categories with {{WikiProject Computer science}}

Template:IEP assignment

compaction

I have just gone through the article and i was really wondering how would if i insert a setion about compaction (it removes external fragmentation by moving all allocated blocks to one end and free blocks to other) below the external fragmentation?
I mean when you disscuss the issue of external fragmentation you should write about how it can be removed. Prashantgonarkar (talk) 03:39, 14 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Terms Used

I have just read through this article and was wondering whether file fragmentation is actually a "phenonemon" or is there a reasonable explanation for why it occurs?

83.104.81.241 (talk) 16:28, 7 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The 'Data fragmentation' section tries to explain it. See the File system fragmentation article if that was unclear. -- intgr [talk] 17:32, 7 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Internal Fragmentation

I recently reverted an edit that turned the Internal Fragmentation section into the text below. This text might have some useful contributions, but it's nowhere near good enough to replace the existing text yet.

Allocation either including reduntant information or data which are not going to be used. The term "internal" means that the unusable storage is inside the allocated region but is not being used.
Purpose and advantages:

Usually provides increased efficiency or simplicity.

Disadvantages:

More difficult to reclaim than other forms of fragmentation.
Usually the best way to remove it is with a design change. For example, in dynamic memory allocation, memory pools drastically cut internal fragmentation by spreading the space overhead over a larger number of objects.

Examples:

In many file systems, files always start at the beginning of a sector (simplifies organization, easier growth of files). Any space left over between the last byte of the file and the first byte of the next sector is a form of internal fragmentation called file slack or slack space.

Examples of use of metadata:
Program allocates a single byte of data is often allocated many additional bytes for metadata and alignment.

Examples of use of reserved (often unused) resources:
IP addresses can only be reserved in blocks of certain sizes (thus many IPs are reserved but not actively used). This is contributing to the IPv4 address shortage.

English text is often stored with one character in each 8-bit byte. Although in standard ASCII encoding the most significant bit of each byte is always zero.