Fragmentation

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  fragmentation \fragmentation\ n.
     the act or process of separating something into small pieces
     or fine particles.
  
     Syn: atomization, atomisation.
          [WordNet 1.5]



From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  fragmentation
       n 1: separating something into fine particles [syn: {atomization},
             {atomisation}]
       2: the disintegration of social norms governing behavior and
          thought and social relationships
       3: (computer science) the condition of a file that is broken up
          and stored in many different locations on a magnetic disk;
          "fragmentation slows system performance because it takes
          extra time to locate and assemble the parts of the
          fragmented file"
       4: the scattering of bomb fragments after the bomb explodes

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

  fragmentation
       
          1.  {segmentation}.
       
          2. The process, or result, of splitting a large area of free
          memory (on disk or in main memory) into smaller non-contiguous
          blocks.  This happens after many blocks have been allocated
          and freed.  For example, if there is 3 kilobytes of free space
          and two 1k blocks are allocated and then the first one (at the
          lowest address) is freed, then there will be 2k of free space
          split between the two 1k blocks.  The maximum size block that
          could then be allocated would be 1k, even though there was 2k
          free.  The solution is to "compact" the free space by moving
          the allocated blocks to one end (and thus the free space to
          the other).  See {garbage collection}.