Managing Storage with Pages or Blocks
Idea: allow noncontiguous allocation in fixed blocks.
- partition each (file, memory) into blocks of 2**N bytes
- partition storage into slots of size 2**N bytes
blocks are often called logical blocks or pages
slots are often called physical blocks or frames
Paged allocation simplifies storage management:
- allocate a slot for each block independently
- slots are reusable and interchangeable
no need to search for a “good” slot; any free one will do
- no external fragmentation; low internal fragmentation