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I am currently studing questions but stuck on this one, I hope someone can help me out to understand.

Question: Assume that we have a paged virtual memory with a page size of 4Ki byte. Assume that each process has four segments (for example: code, data, stack, extra) and that these can be of arbitrary but given size. How much will the operating system loose in internal fragmentation?

The answer is: Each segment will in average give rise to 2Ki byte of fragmentation. This will in average mean 8 Ki byte per process. If we for example have 100 processes this is a total loss of 800 Ki byte.

My question: That 2Ki byte each segment is confusing but I think that is just a guess. Anyway, if we have 8Ki byte per process, that would not even fit in a 4Ki byte page isn't that actually a external fragmentation? Can someone explain the correct answer that is easier to understand?

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  1. If each page is 4 KB and segment has arbitrary size, then you lose from 0 to 4095 bytes on each segment, i.e. 2 KiB at average
  2. I think it can be called internal fragmentation for pages, but external one for segments
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  • $\begingroup$ @Bulbat thanks for the answer, a question tho, the page table is per process, and each process has four segments, if one segment can lose from 0 to 4095, how about the other three segments? Shouldn't it be each process can lose from 0 to 4095? $\endgroup$
    – nihulus
    Commented Apr 21, 2019 at 17:50
  • $\begingroup$ Each segment is independent, so you can lose up to 4*4095 bytes, i.e. 8 KiB at average. $\endgroup$
    – Bulat
    Commented Apr 21, 2019 at 19:26

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