Performance of a database manager in a virtual memory system

Buffer space is created and managed in database systems in order to reduce accesses to the I/O devices for database information. In systems using virtual memory any increase in the buffer space may be accompanied by an increase in paging. The effects of these factors on system performance are quantified where system performance is a function of page faults and database accesses to I/O devices. This phenomenon is examined through the analysis of empirical data gathered in a multifactor experiment. The factors considered are memory size, size of buffer space, memory replacement algorithm, and buffer management algorithm. The improvement of system performance through an increase in the size of the buffer space is demonstrated. It is also shown that for certain values of the other factors an increase in the size of the buffer space can cause performance to deteriorate.