Final answer:
Using a fixed allocation for a VM system's resident set size simplifies memory management and ensures predictable memory availability for processes but can lead to inefficient memory usage and reduced performance due to inflexibility in allocation.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question focuses on the pros and cons of using a fixed allocation for a VM system's resident set size. In computer systems, the resident set is the portion of a process's memory that is kept in physical memory (RAM).
One of the pros of using a fixed allocation for the resident set size is that it simplifies memory management. Since the amount of physical memory allocated to a process is constant, the system does not need to frequently adjust it, which can reduce overhead. Additionally, it ensures that a process will have a predictable amount of physical memory, which can be useful for performance guarantees.
On the other hand, one of the cons is that fixed allocation can lead to inefficient use of memory. If a process is allocated more memory than it needs, the excess cannot be used by other processes, leading to wastage. Similarly, if a process needs more memory than it was allocated, it cannot take advantage of unused memory in other processes which can lead to increased paging and reduced performance.