Here is an excerpt from Oracle 8i Reference about SORT_AREA_SIZE:

"Increasing SORT_AREA_SIZE size improves the efficiency of large sorts. Multiple allocations never exist; there is only one memory area of SORT_AREA_SIZE for each user process at any time."

So does this mean for each user process, there could be a memory area of size SORT_AREA_SIZE that is dedicated to the user process for sorting? If so, if I have 3 user processes doing sorting at the same time, it could potentially use 3*SORT_AREA_SIZE memory?

What does it mean by "Multiple allocations never exist"? Does it mean each user process can only be allocated once for SORT_AREA_SIZE memory?

Thanks,