Big Buckets Are (Are Not) Better!

The relationship between certain techniques for the storage of information in a computer and a cell occupancy problem is shown Specifically, consider n cells or buckets each capable of holding k balls. Balls are distributed into the cells randomly A ball sent to the/th cell is placed either into the ]th cell or into the first cell to the right of the/th cell which has k – 1 or fewer balls The placement of balls into cells requires comparisons to determine the status of the cells The distribution and expected value of the number of such comparisons and in particular the behavior as n → ∞ are determined. © 1977, ACM. All rights reserved.