Q45

Consider contiguous allocation of physical memory to processes using variable partitioning scheme. Suppose there are $8$ holes in the memory of sizes $20 \mathrm{KB}, 4 \mathrm{~KB}$, $25 \mathrm{~KB}, 18 \mathrm{~KB}, 7 \mathrm{~KB}, 9 \mathrm{~KB}, 15 \mathrm{~KB}$, and $12$ KB. Assume that no two holes are adjacent. Two processes $\text{P1}$ of size $16$ KB and $\text{P2}$ of size $9$ KB arrive in that order, and they are allocated memory using the best-fit technique. After allocating space to $\text{P1}$ and $\text{P2}$, the number of holes of size less than $8$ KB is $\_\_\_\_\_\_\_$. (answer in integer) Note: $1 \mathrm{K}=2^{10}$