Fragmentation

Fragmentation occurs when unused memory is not available to satisfy allocate requests. There are two forms of fragmentation: internal fragmentation and external fragmentation.

Internal Fragmentation

Internal fragmentation occurs when the size of an allocated block is larger than the data it holds. This may happen if the implementation of an allocator requires a minimum size on allocated blocks that is greater than the payload.

External Fragmentation

External fragmentation occurs when the sum of free memory blocks is enough to allocate a block, but no single free block is large enough to handle the request. Allocators typically employ heuristics that attempt to maintain small numbers of larger free blocks rather than large numbers of smaller free blocks.

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