Pages

A page is the physical unit of disk storage that the database server uses to read from and write to Informix databases. Figure 34 illustrates the concept of a page, represented by a darkened sector of a disk platter.

Figure 34. A Page on Disk

On most UNIX platforms, the page size is 2 kilobytes. On Windows, the page size is 4 kilobytes. Because your hardware determines the size of your page, you cannot alter this value.

A chunk contains a certain number of pages, as Figure 35 illustrates. A page is always entirely contained within a chunk; that is, a page cannot cross chunk boundaries.

Figure 35. A Chunk, Logically Separated into a Series of Pages

For information on how the database server structures data within a page, see the chapter on disk structures and storage in the IBM Informix Dynamic Server Administrator's Reference