What is the difference between internal and external fragmentation?

What is the difference between internal and external fragmentation?

Internal fragmentation occurs when memory blocks are allocated but not fully used, while external fragmentation happens when free memory is split into small, non-contiguous blocks.

Can you give an example of internal fragmentation?

Sure! If a memory block of 100 MB is allocated to a process that only needs 80 MB, the remaining 20 MB is wasted, leading to internal fragmentation.

And what about external fragmentation?

External fragmentation occurs when there is enough total free memory to satisfy a request, but it's not contiguous. For example, if you have 50 MB free in one block and 30 MB in another, you can't allocate 70 MB to a process.

How can we reduce fragmentation in memory management?

Fragmentation can be reduced by using techniques like compaction, paging, or segmentation, which help manage memory allocation more efficiently.