Simulation of the performance of a collection of storage space allocation algorithms
J. C. Nichols · 1976
Storage algorithms for reserving and freeing contiguous blocks of storage space were investigated. A simulation program was constructed and run for each method; several different distributions of the parameters that characterize the request for storage space were used. The performance of a noncontiguous storage algorithm was simulated for comparison with the other methods. The effect of disk flaws on the performance of several algorithms was also simulated. The simulation runs showed that the algorithm currently in use at LLL performs best for theoretical distributions of file size and life but that it is not best-suited for the distributions of size and life drawn from the samplings of the LLL machines. The results did not indicate a better-suited choice for the LLL data because samples from different LLL systems resulted in different rankings among the various algorithms. 9 tables.