rotational delay = 5ms, transfer time = 1ms/page. The cost for a random I/O is (seek time + rotational delay +
transfer time) = 16ms/page. The cost for sequential I/Os (that is a block of several pages which are next to each
other on the disk) is (seek time + rotational delay) = 15ms to find the starting point followed by 1ms/page to
transfer each page in the block. Assume you need to sort a file with 10,000,000 pages using 320 buffer pages.
Pass-0 creates sorted runs of 320 pages each, stored sequentially. For the subsequent passes, you have the
following alternatives:
(i) Do 319-way merges.
(ii) Create 16 "input" buffers of 16 pages each, create an "output" buffer of 64 pages, and do 16-way merges.
(iii) Create 4 "input" buffers of 64 pages each, create an "output" buffer of 64 pages, and do 4-way merges.
Which alternative is the fastest? Explain.