cluster

n : a thick grouping of similar things; "a bunch of trees"; "a

cluster of admirers" [syn: {bunch}, {clump}]

v 1: come together as in a cluster or flock; "The poets

constellate in this town every summer" [syn: {constellate},

{flock}, {clump}]

2: gather or cause to gather into a cluster; "She bunched her

fingers into a fist"; "The students bunched up at the

registration desk" [syn: {bunch}, {bunch up}, {bundle}, {clump}]

cluster

An elementary unit of allocation of a disk made

up of one or more physical {blocks}.

A {file} is made up of a whole number of possibly

non-contiguous clusters. The cluster size is a tradeoff

between space efficiency (the bigger is the cluster, the

bigger is on the average the wasted space at the end of each

file) and the length of the {FAT}.

(1996-11-04)