A file has r = 20,000 STUDENT records of fixed length. Each record has the following fields: Name (30 bytes), Ssn (9 bytes), Address (40 bytes), PHONE (10 bytes), Birth_date (8 bytes), Sex (1 byte), Major_dept_code (4 bytes), Minor_dept_code (4 bytes), Class_code (4 bytes, integer), and Degree_program (3 bytes). An additional byte is used as a deletion marker. The file is stored on the disk whose parameters are given in Exercise 16.27.

a. Calculate the record size R in bytes.

b. Calculate the blocking factor bfr and the number of file blocks b, assuming an unspanned organization.

c. Calculate the average time it takes to find a record by doing a linear search on the file if 

(i) The file blocks are stored contiguously, and double buffering is used; 

(ii) The file blocks are not stored contiguously.

d. Assume that the file is ordered by Ssn; by doing a binary search, calculate the time it takes to search for a record given its Ssn value.

Exercise 16.27

What are SATA, SAS, and FC protocols?