diff --git a/README.md b/README.md index d53322fd3..c70e942cb 100644 --- a/README.md +++ b/README.md @@ -35,7 +35,6 @@ Click here to get the [Latest Version Number](http://search.maven.org/#search%7C * [Entries](https://github.com/OpenHFT/Chronicle-Map#entries) * [Size of Space Reserved on Disk](https://github.com/OpenHFT/Chronicle-Map#size-of-space-reserved-on-disk) * [Chronicle Map Interface](https://github.com/OpenHFT/Chronicle-Map#chronicle-map-interface) -* [Oversized Entries Support] (https://github.com/OpenHFT/Chronicle-Map/blob/master/README.md#oversized-entries-support) * [Serialization](https://github.com/OpenHFT/Chronicle-Map#serialization) * [Simple Types](https://github.com/OpenHFT/Chronicle-Map#simple-types) * [Complex Types](https://github.com/OpenHFT/Chronicle-Map#complex-types) @@ -599,18 +598,6 @@ If after some business logic, in our example after reading the 'issueDate' and 'context' is already aware of the entries location in memory. So it will be quicker to call `context.removeEntry()` rather than `map.remove(key)`. -## Oversized Entries Support - -It is possible for the size of your entry to be larger than the space which chronicle map -internally allocates to each entry. We refer to this type of entry as an oversized entry. -Oversized entries are there to cater for the case -where only a small percentage of your entries are larger than the others, in this case your large entry will -span across a number of entries. The alternative would be to increase the internal entry size to be similar -to the size of the largest entry, but this approach is wasteful of memory, especially when most -entries are no where near the max entry size. So put simply Chronicle map is able to accept entries -where each can have a different size but it does this in a way that is efficient. - - ## Serialization ![Serialization](http://openhft.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Serialization_01.jpg) diff --git a/src/main/java/net/openhft/chronicle/hash/ChronicleHashBuilder.java b/src/main/java/net/openhft/chronicle/hash/ChronicleHashBuilder.java index 8dce56d17..4ffa24c73 100755 --- a/src/main/java/net/openhft/chronicle/hash/ChronicleHashBuilder.java +++ b/src/main/java/net/openhft/chronicle/hash/ChronicleHashBuilder.java @@ -55,6 +55,11 @@ import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit; * the corresponding configuration changed. To make an independent configuration, {@linkplain * #clone} the builder. * + *

There are some "low-level" configurations in this builder, + * that require deep understanding of the Chronicle implementation design to be properly used. + * Know what you do. These configurations are picked up strictly as-is, without extra round-ups, + * adjustments, etc. + * * @param the type of keys in hash containers, created by this builder * @param the container type, created by this builder, i. e. {@link ChronicleMap} or {@link * ChronicleSet} @@ -83,27 +88,29 @@ public interface ChronicleHashBuilderIf key size varies moderately, specify the size higher than average, but lower than the - * maximum possible, to minimize average memory overuse. If key size varies in a wide range, - * it's better to use {@linkplain #entrySize(int) entry size} in "chunk" mode and configure it - * directly. + *

{@code ChronicleHashBuilder} implementation heuristically chooses + * {@linkplain #actualChunkSize(int) the actual chunk size} based on this configuration, that, + * however, might result to quite high internal fragmentation, i. e. losses because only + * integral number of chunks could be allocated for the entry. If you want to avoid this, you + * should manually configure the actual chunk size in addition to this average key size + * configuration, which is anyway needed. * *

If key is a boxed primitive type or {@link Byteable} subclass, i. e. if key size is known * statically, it is automatically accounted and shouldn't be specified by user. * - * @param keySize number of bytes, taken by serialized form of keys + * @param averageKeySize the average number of bytes, taken by serialized form of keys * @return this builder back * @throws IllegalStateException if key size is known statically and shouldn't be configured * by user * @throws IllegalArgumentException if the given {@code keySize} is non-positive * @see #constantKeySizeBySample(Object) - * @see #entrySize(int) + * @see #actualChunkSize(int) */ - B keySize(int keySize); + B averageKeySize(double averageKeySize); /** * Configures the constant number of bytes, taken by serialized form of keys, put into hash @@ -113,12 +120,12 @@ public interface ChronicleHashBuilderIf keys are of boxed primitive type or {@link Byteable} subclass, i. e. if key size is * known statically, it is automatically accounted and this method shouldn't be called. * - *

If key size varies, method {@link #keySize(int)} or {@link #entrySize(int)} should be - * called instead of this one. + *

If key size varies, method {@link #averageKeySize(double)} should be called instead of + * this one. * * @param sampleKey the sample key * @return this builder back - * @see #keySize(int) + * @see #averageKeySize(double) */ B constantKeySizeBySample(K sampleKey); @@ -130,104 +137,124 @@ public interface ChronicleHashBuilderentry size is a minimum allocation portion in the - * hash containers, created by this builder. E. g. if entry size is 100, the created container + * ChronicleSet} should allocate. So chunk size is the minimum allocation portion in the + * hash containers, created by this builder. E. g. if chunk size is 100, the created container * could only allocate 100, 200, 300... bytes for an entry. If say 150 bytes of entry space are - * required by the entry, 200 bytes will be allocated, 150 used and 50 wasted. To minimize - * memory overuse and improve speed, you should pay decent attention to this configuration. + * required by the entry, 200 bytes will be allocated, 150 used and 50 wasted. This is called + * internal fragmentation. * - *

There are three major patterns of this configuration usage:

  1. Key (and value, in - * {@code ChronicleMap} case) sizes are constant. Configure them via {@link - * #constantKeySizeBySample(Object)} and {@link ChronicleMapBuilder#constantValueSizeBySample(Object)} - * methods, and you will experience no memory waste at all.
  2. Key (and/or value size, in - * {@code ChronicleMap} case) varies moderately. Specify them using corresponding methods, or - * specify entry size directly by calling this method, by sizes somewhere between average and - * maximum possible. The idea is to have most (90% or more) entries to fit a single "entry size" - * with moderate memory waste (10-20% on average), rest 10% or less of entries should take 2 - * "entry sizes", thus with ~50% memory overuse.
  3. Key (and/or value size, in {@code - * ChronicleMap} case) varies in a wide range. Then it's best to use entry size configuration in - * chunk mode. Specify entry size so that most entries should take from 5 to several - * dozens of "chunks". With this approach, average memory waste should be very low. + *

    To minimize memory overuse and improve speed, you should pay decent attention to this + * configuration. Alternatively, you can just trust the heuristics and doesn't configure + * the chunk size. * - *

    However, remember that

    + *

    Specify chunk size so that most entries would take from 5 to several dozens of chunks. + * However, remember that operations with entries that span several chunks are a bit slower, + * than with entries which take a single chunk. Particularly avoid entries to take more than + * 64 chunks. * *

    Example: if values in your {@code ChronicleMap} are adjacency lists of some social graph, * where nodes are represented as {@code long} ids, and adjacency lists are serialized in * efficient manner, for example as {@code long[]} arrays. Typical number of connections is - * 100-300, maximum is 3000. In this case entry size of - * 50 * (8 bytes for each id) = 400 bytes would be a good choice: 

    {@code
+     * 100-300, maximum is 3000. In this case chunk size of
+     * 30 * (8 bytes for each id) = 240 bytes would be a good choice: 
    {@code
      * Map socialGraph = ChronicleMapOnHeapUpdatableBuilder
      *     .of(Long.class, long[].class)
-     *     // given that graph should have of 1 billion nodes, and 150 average adjacency list size
-     *     // => values takes 3 chuncks on average
-     *     .entries(1_000_000_000L * (150 / 50))
-     *     .entrySize(50 * 8)
+     *     .entries(1_000_000_000L)
+     *     .averageValueSize(150 * 8) // 150 is average adjacency list size
+     *     .actualChunkSize(30 * 8) // average 5-6 chunks per entry
      *     .create();}
    
-     * It is minimum possible (because 3000 friends / 50 friends = 60 is close to 64 "max chunks by
-     * single entry" limit, and ensures moderate average memory overuse (not more than 20%).
    4. - *
* - * @param entrySize the "chunk size" in bytes + *

This is a low-level configuration. The configured number + * of bytes is strictly used as-is, without anything like round-up to the multiple of 8 or + * 16, or any other adjustment. + * + * @param actualChunkSize the "chunk size" in bytes * @return this builder back * @see #entries(long) - * @see #maxEntryOversizeFactor(int) + * @see #maxChunksPerEntry(int) */ - B entrySize(int entrySize); + B actualChunkSize(int actualChunkSize); /** - * Configures how much the actual entry size is allowed to be larger than configured or derived - * {@linkplain #entrySize(int) entry size}. + * Configures how many chunks a single entry, inserted into {@code ChronicleHash}es, created + * by this builder, could take. If you try to insert larger entry, {@link IllegalStateException} + * is fired. This is useful as self-check, that you configured chunk size right and you + * keys (and values, in {@link ChronicleMap} case) take expected number of bytes. For example, + * if {@link #constantKeySizeBySample(Object)} is configured or key size is statically known + * to be constant (boxed primitives, data value generated implementations, {@link Byteable}s, + * etc.), and the same for value objects in {@code ChronicleMap} case, max chunks per entry + * is configured to 1, to ensure keys and values are actually constantly-sized. * - * @param maxEntryOversizeFactor number of times the actual entry size could oversize the - * configured "entry size" (chunk size, actually) + * @param maxChunksPerEntry how many chunks a single entry could span at most * @return this builder back - * @throws IllegalArgumentException if the given {@code maxEntryOversizeFactor} is lesser than 1 + * @throws IllegalArgumentException if the given {@code maxChunksPerEntry} is lesser than 1 * or greater than 64 + * @see #actualChunkSize(int) */ - B maxEntryOversizeFactor(int maxEntryOversizeFactor); + B maxChunksPerEntry(int maxChunksPerEntry); /** - * Configures the maximum number of {@linkplain #entrySize(int) "entry size chunks"}, which - * could be taken by the maximum number of entries, inserted into the hash containers, created - * by this builder. If you try to insert more data, {@link IllegalStateException} might be - * thrown, because currently {@link ChronicleMap} and {@link ChronicleSet} doesn't support - * resizing. + * Configures the maximum number of entries, that could be inserted into the hash containers, + * created by this builder. If you try to insert more data, {@link IllegalStateException} + * might be thrown, because currently {@link ChronicleMap} and {@link ChronicleSet} + * don't support resizing. * - *

  1. If key size (and value size, in {@code ChronicleMap} case) is constant, this number - * is equal to the maximum number of entries (because each entry takes exactly one "entry size" - * memory unit).
  2. If key (and/or value, in {@code ChronicleMap} case) size varies - * moderately, you should pass to this method the maximum number of entries + 5-25%, depending - * on your data properties and configured {@linkplain #keySize(int) key}/{@linkplain - * ChronicleMapBuilder#valueSize(int) - * value}/{@linkplain #entrySize(int) entry} sizes.
  3. If your data size varies in a wide - * range, pass the maximum number of entries multiplied by average data size and divided by the - * configured "entry size" (i. e. chunk size). See an example in the documentation to {@link - * #entrySize(int)} method.
- * - *

You shouldn't put additional margin over the number, computed according the rules above. + *

You shouldn't put additional margin over the actual maximum number of entries. * This bad practice was popularized by {@link HashMap#HashMap(int)} and {@link - * HashSet#HashSet(int)} constructors, which accept "capacity", that should be multiplied by - * "load factor" to obtain actual maximum expected number of entries. {@code ChronicleMap} and - * {@code ChronicleSet} don't have a notion of load factor. + * HashSet#HashSet(int)} constructors, which accept capacity, that should be multiplied + * by load factor to obtain the actual maximum expected number of entries. + * {@code ChronicleMap} and {@code ChronicleSet} don't have a notion of load factor. * - *

Default value is 2^20 (~ 1 million). + *

Default maximum entries is 2^20 (~ 1 million). * - * @param entries maximum size of the created maps, in memory allocation units, so-called "entry - * size" + * @param entries maximum size of the maps or sets, created by this builder * @return this builder back - * @see #entrySize(int) */ B entries(long entries); - B actualEntriesPerSegment(long actualEntriesPerSegment); + /** + * Configures the actual maximum number entries, that could be inserted into any single segment + * of the hash containers, created by this builder. Configuring both the actual number of + * entries per segment and {@linkplain #actualSegments(int) actual segments} replaces a single + * {@link #entries(long)} configuration. + * + *

This is a low-level configuration. + * + * @param entriesPerSegment the actual maximum number entries per segment in the + * hash containers, created by this builder + * @return this builder back + * @see #entries(long) + * @see #actualSegments(int) + */ + B entriesPerSegment(long entriesPerSegment); + /** + * Configures the actual number of chunks, that will be reserved for any single segment of the + * hash containers, created by this builder. This configuration is a lower-level version of + * {@link #entriesPerSegment(long)}. Makes sense only if {@link #actualChunkSize(int)}, + * {@link #actualSegments(int)} and {@link #entriesPerSegment(long)} are also configured + * manually. + * + * @param actualChunksPerSegment the actual number of segments, reserved per segment in the + * hash containers, created by this builder + * @return this builder back + */ + B actualChunksPerSegment(long actualChunksPerSegment); + + /** + * Configures the actual number of segments in the hash containers, created by this builder. + * With {@linkplain #entriesPerSegment(long) actual number of segments}, this + * configuration replaces a single {@link #entries(long)} call. + * + *

This is a low-level configuration. The configured number + * is used as-is, without anything like round-up to the closest power of 2. + * + * @param actualSegments the actual number of segments in hash containers, created by + * this builder + * @return this builder back + * @see #minSegments(int) + * @see #entriesPerSegment(long) + */ B actualSegments(int actualSegments); /** diff --git a/src/main/java/net/openhft/chronicle/hash/serialization/SizeMarshaller.java b/src/main/java/net/openhft/chronicle/hash/serialization/SizeMarshaller.java index d564e45e3..5c988298d 100644 --- a/src/main/java/net/openhft/chronicle/hash/serialization/SizeMarshaller.java +++ b/src/main/java/net/openhft/chronicle/hash/serialization/SizeMarshaller.java @@ -26,6 +26,10 @@ public interface SizeMarshaller extends Serializable { int sizeEncodingSize(long size); + int minSizeEncodingSize(); + + int maxSizeEncodingSize(); + void writeSize(Bytes bytes, long size); long readSize(Bytes bytes); diff --git a/src/main/java/net/openhft/chronicle/hash/serialization/SizeMarshallers.java b/src/main/java/net/openhft/chronicle/hash/serialization/SizeMarshallers.java index 7c006738f..490a34a58 100644 --- a/src/main/java/net/openhft/chronicle/hash/serialization/SizeMarshallers.java +++ b/src/main/java/net/openhft/chronicle/hash/serialization/SizeMarshallers.java @@ -36,6 +36,16 @@ public final class SizeMarshallers { return stopBitLength(size); } + @Override + public int minSizeEncodingSize() { + return 1; + } + + @Override + public int maxSizeEncodingSize() { + return 9; + } + @Override public void writeSize(Bytes bytes, long size) { bytes.writeStopBit(size); @@ -65,6 +75,16 @@ public final class SizeMarshallers { return 0; } + @Override + public int minSizeEncodingSize() { + return 0; + } + + @Override + public int maxSizeEncodingSize() { + return 0; + } + @Override public void writeSize(Bytes bytes, long size) { // do nothing diff --git a/src/main/java/net/openhft/chronicle/hash/serialization/internal/ByteableMarshaller.java b/src/main/java/net/openhft/chronicle/hash/serialization/internal/ByteableMarshaller.java index bb39475c7..0f32d5c03 100644 --- a/src/main/java/net/openhft/chronicle/hash/serialization/internal/ByteableMarshaller.java +++ b/src/main/java/net/openhft/chronicle/hash/serialization/internal/ByteableMarshaller.java @@ -69,6 +69,16 @@ public abstract class ByteableMarshaller return 0; } + @Override + public int minSizeEncodingSize() { + return 0; + } + + @Override + public int maxSizeEncodingSize() { + return 0; + } + @Override public void writeSize(Bytes bytes, long size) { // do nothing diff --git a/src/main/java/net/openhft/chronicle/hash/serialization/internal/DoubleMarshaller.java b/src/main/java/net/openhft/chronicle/hash/serialization/internal/DoubleMarshaller.java index 2a13e1577..20fb35773 100644 --- a/src/main/java/net/openhft/chronicle/hash/serialization/internal/DoubleMarshaller.java +++ b/src/main/java/net/openhft/chronicle/hash/serialization/internal/DoubleMarshaller.java @@ -39,6 +39,16 @@ public enum DoubleMarshaller implements BytesInterop, BytesReader builder = ChronicleMapBuilder * .of(Key.class, Value.class) * .entries(100500); - *

+ * * ChronicleMap map1 = builder.create(); * ChronicleMap map2 = builder.create();} - * i. e. created {@code ChronicleMap} instances don't depend on the builder.

{@code - * ChronicleMapBuilder} is mutable, see a note in {@link ChronicleHashBuilder} interface - * documentation.

Later in this documentation, "ChronicleMap" means "ChronicleMaps, created - * by {@code ChronicleMapBuilder}", unless specified different, because theoretically someone might - * provide {@code ChronicleMap} implementations with completely different properties.

{@code - * ChronicleMap} ("ChronicleMaps, created by {@code ChronicleMapBuilder}") currently doesn't support - * resizing. That is why you should always configure {@linkplain #entries(long) number of - * entries} you are going to insert into the created map at most. See {@link #entries(long)} - * method documentation for more information on this.

{@code ChronicleMap} allocates memory - * by equally sized chunks. This size is called {@linkplain #entrySize(int) entry size}, you are - * strongly recommended to configure it to achieve least memory consumption and best speed. See - * {@link #entrySize(int)} method documentation for more information on this. + * i. e. created {@code ChronicleMap} instances don't depend on the builder. + * + *

{@code ChronicleMapBuilder} is mutable, see a note in {@link ChronicleHashBuilder} interface + * documentation. + * + *

Later in this documentation, "ChronicleMap" means "ChronicleMaps, created by {@code + * ChronicleMapBuilder}", unless specified different, because theoretically someone might provide + * {@code ChronicleMap} implementations with completely different properties. + * + *

{@code ChronicleMap} ("ChronicleMaps, created by {@code ChronicleMapBuilder}") currently + * doesn't support resizing. That is why you must configure {@linkplain + * #entries(long) number of entries} you are going to insert into the created map at most. + * See {@link #entries(long)} method documentation for more information on this. + * + *

If you key or value type is not constantly sized and known to {@code ChronicleHashBuilder}, + * i. e. it is not a boxed primitive, data value generated interface, {@link Byteable}, etc. (see + * the complete list TODO insert the link to the complete list), + * you must provide the {@code ChronicleHashBuilder} with some information about you keys + * or values: if they are constantly-sized, call {@link #constantKeySizeBySample(Object)}, otherwise + * {@link ChronicleHashBuilder#averageKeySize(double)} method, accordingly for values. * * @param key type of the maps, produced by this builder * @param value type of the maps, produced by this builder @@ -93,6 +98,7 @@ public final class ChronicleMapBuilder implements Cloneable, static final byte UDP_REPLICATION_MODIFICATION_ITERATOR_ID = (byte) 128; private static final int DEFAULT_KEY_OR_VALUE_SIZE = 120; + private static final long DEFAULT_ENTRIES = 1 << 20; private static final int MAX_SEGMENTS = (1 << 30); private static final int MAX_SEGMENTS_TO_CHAISE_COMPACT_MULTI_MAPS = (1 << 20); private static final Logger LOG = @@ -101,6 +107,15 @@ public final class ChronicleMapBuilder implements Cloneable, private static final StringBuilder EMTRY_STRING_BUILDER = new StringBuilder(); + private static final double UNDEFINED_DOUBLE_CONFIG = Double.NaN; + + private static boolean isDefined(double config) { + return !Double.isNaN(config); + } + + private static final boolean strictStateChecks = + Boolean.getBoolean("chronicle.strictStateChecks"); + SerializationBuilder keyBuilder; SerializationBuilder valueBuilder; @@ -110,15 +125,16 @@ public final class ChronicleMapBuilder implements Cloneable, private int minSegments = -1; private int actualSegments = -1; // used when reading the number of entries per - private long actualEntriesPerSegment = -1L; - private int keySize = 0; + private long entriesPerSegment = -1L; + private long actualChunksPerSegment = -1L; + private double averageKeySize = UNDEFINED_DOUBLE_CONFIG; private K sampleKey; - private int valueSize = 0; + private double averageValueSize = UNDEFINED_DOUBLE_CONFIG; private V sampleValue; - private int entrySize = 0; - private int maxEntryOversizeFactor = -1; + private int actualChunkSize = 0; + private int maxChunksPerEntry = -1; private Alignment alignment = null; - private long entries = 1 << 20; // 1 million by default + private long entries = -1; private long lockTimeOut = 20000; private TimeUnit lockTimeOutUnit = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS; private int metaDataBytes = 0; @@ -214,36 +230,37 @@ public final class ChronicleMapBuilder implements Cloneable, } /** - * {@inheritDoc}

Example: if keys in your map(s) are English words in {@link String} - * form, keys size 10 - * (a bit more than average English word length) would be a good choice: 

{@code
+     * {@inheritDoc}
+     *
+     * 
Example: if keys in your map(s) are English words in {@link String} form, average English
+     * word length is 5.1, configure average key size of 6: 
{@code
      * ChronicleMap wordFrequencies = ChronicleMapBuilder
      *     .of(String.class, LongValue.class)
      *     .entries(50000)
-     *     .keySize(10)
-     *     // shouldn't specify valueSize(), because it is statically known
+     *     .averageKeySize(6)
      *     .create();}

-     * (Note that 10 is chosen as key size in bytes despite strings in Java are UTF-16 encoded (and
-     * each character takes 2 bytes on-heap), because default off-heap {@link String} encoding is
-     * UTF-8 in {@code ChronicleMap}.)
+     * (Note that 6 is chosen as average key size in bytes despite strings in Java are UTF-16
+     * encoded (and each character takes 2 bytes on-heap), because default off-heap {@link String}
+     * encoding is UTF-8 in {@code ChronicleMap}.)
      *
      * @throws IllegalStateException    {@inheritDoc}
      * @throws IllegalArgumentException {@inheritDoc}
      * @see #constantKeySizeBySample(Object)
-     * @see #valueSize(int)
-     * @see #entrySize(int)
+     * @see #averageValueSize(double)
+     * @see #actualChunkSize(int)
+     * @param averageKeySize
      */
     @Override
-    public ChronicleMapBuilder keySize(int keySize) {
+    public ChronicleMapBuilder averageKeySize(double averageKeySize) {
         checkSizeIsNotStaticallyKnown(keyBuilder);
-        if (keySize <= 0)
-            throw new IllegalArgumentException("Key size must be positive");
-        this.keySize = keySize;
+        checkAverageSize(averageKeySize, "key");
+        this.averageKeySize = averageKeySize;
         return this;
     }
 
     /**
-     * {@inheritDoc} 

+     * {@inheritDoc}
+     *
      * 
For example, if your keys are Git commit hashes:
{@code
      * Map gitCommitMessagesByHash =
      *     ChronicleMapBuilder.of(byte[].class, String.class)
@@ -251,7 +268,7 @@ public final class ChronicleMapBuilder implements Cloneable,
      *     .immutableKeys()
      *     .create();}

      *
-     * @see #keySize(int)
+     * @see ChronicleHashBuilder#averageKeySize(double)
      * @see #constantValueSizeBySample(Object)
      */
     @Override
@@ -260,37 +277,49 @@ public final class ChronicleMapBuilder implements Cloneable,
         return this;
     }
 
-    private int keySize() {
-        return keyOrValueSize(keySize, keyBuilder);
+    private double averageKeySize() {
+        return averageKeyOrValueSize(averageKeySize, keyBuilder);
     }
 
     /**
-     * Configures the optimal number of bytes, taken by serialized form of values, put into maps,
+     * Configures the average number of bytes, taken by serialized form of values, put into maps,
      * created by this builder. If value size is always the same, call {@link
-     * #constantValueSizeBySample(Object)} method instead of this one. 
 
If values are of boxed
-     * primitive type or {@link Byteable} subclass, i. e. if value size is known statically, it is
-     * automatically accounted and shouldn't be specified by user. 
 
If value size varies
-     * moderately, specify the size higher than average, but lower than the maximum possible, to
-     * minimize average memory overuse. If value size varies in a wide range, it's better to use
-     * {@linkplain #entrySize(int) entry size} in "chunk" mode and configure it directly.
+     * #constantValueSizeBySample(Object)} method instead of this one.
      *
-     * @param valueSize number of bytes, taken by serialized form of values
+     * 
{@code ChronicleHashBuilder} implementation heuristically chooses
+     * {@linkplain #actualChunkSize(int) the actual chunk size} based on this configuration and
+     * the key size, that, however, might result to quite high internal fragmentation,
+     * i. e. losses because only integral number of chunks could be allocated for the entry. If you
+     * want to avoid this, you should manually configure the actual chunk size in addition to this
+     * average value size configuration, which is anyway needed.
+     *
+     * 
If values are of boxed primitive type or {@link Byteable} subclass, i. e. if value size is
+     * known statically, it is automatically accounted and shouldn't be specified by user.
+     *
+     * @param averageValueSize number of bytes, taken by serialized form of values
      * @return this builder back
      * @throws IllegalStateException    if value size is known statically and shouldn't be
      *                                  configured by user
-     * @throws IllegalArgumentException if the given {@code valueSize} is non-positive
+     * @throws IllegalArgumentException if the given {@code averageValueSize} is non-positive
      * @see #constantValueSizeBySample(Object)
-     * @see #keySize(int)
-     * @see #entrySize(int)
+     * @see ChronicleHashBuilder#averageKeySize(double)
+     * @see #actualChunkSize(int)
      */
-    public ChronicleMapBuilder valueSize(int valueSize) {
+    public ChronicleMapBuilder averageValueSize(double averageValueSize) {
         checkSizeIsNotStaticallyKnown(valueBuilder);
-        if (valueSize <= 0)
-            throw new IllegalArgumentException("Value size must be positive");
-        this.valueSize = valueSize;
+        checkAverageSize(averageValueSize, "value");
+        this.averageValueSize = averageValueSize;
         return this;
     }
 
+    private static void checkAverageSize(double averageSize, String role) {
+        if (averageSize <= 0 || Double.isNaN(averageSize) ||
+                Double.isInfinite(averageSize)) {
+            throw new IllegalArgumentException("Average " + role + " size must be a positive, " +
+                    "finite number");
+        }
+    }
+
     private static void checkSizeIsNotStaticallyKnown(SerializationBuilder builder) {
         if (builder.sizeIsStaticallyKnown)
             throw new IllegalStateException("Size of type " + builder.eClass +
@@ -300,15 +329,17 @@ public final class ChronicleMapBuilder implements Cloneable,
     /**
      * Configures the constant number of bytes, taken by serialized form of values, put into maps,
      * created by this builder. This is done by providing the {@code sampleValue}, all values should
-     * take the same number of bytes in serialized form, as this sample object. 
 
If values are
-     * of boxed primitive type or {@link Byteable} subclass, i. e. if value size is known
-     * statically, it is automatically accounted and this method shouldn't be called. 
 
If
-     * value size varies, method {@link #valueSize(int)} or {@link #entrySize(int)} should be called
-     * instead of this one.
+     * take the same number of bytes in serialized form, as this sample object.
+     *
+     * 
If values are of boxed primitive type or {@link Byteable} subclass, i. e. if value size is
+     * known statically, it is automatically accounted and this method shouldn't be called.
+     *
+     * 
If value size varies, method {@link #averageValueSize(double)} should be called instead of
+     * this one.
      *
      * @param sampleValue the sample value
      * @return this builder back
-     * @see #valueSize(int)
+     * @see #averageValueSize(double)
      * @see #constantKeySizeBySample(Object)
      */
     public ChronicleMapBuilder constantValueSizeBySample(V sampleValue) {
@@ -316,12 +347,12 @@ public final class ChronicleMapBuilder implements Cloneable,
         return this;
     }
 
-    int valueSize() {
-        return keyOrValueSize(valueSize, valueBuilder);
+    double averageValueSize() {
+        return averageKeyOrValueSize(averageValueSize, valueBuilder);
     }
 
-    private int keyOrValueSize(int configuredSize, SerializationBuilder builder) {
-        if (configuredSize > 0)
+    private double averageKeyOrValueSize(double configuredSize, SerializationBuilder builder) {
+        if (isDefined(configuredSize))
             return configuredSize;
         if (builder.constantSizeMarshaller())
             return builder.pseudoReadConstantSize();
@@ -329,110 +360,195 @@ public final class ChronicleMapBuilder implements Cloneable,
     }
 
     /**
-     * {@inheritDoc} 
 
In fully default case you can expect entry size to be about 256 bytes.
-     * But it is strongly recommended always to configure {@linkplain #keySize(int) key size} and
-     * {@linkplain #valueSize(int) value size}, if they couldn't be derived statically. 
 
If
-     * entry size is not configured explicitly by calling this method, it is computed based on
-     * {@linkplain #metaDataBytes(int) meta data bytes}, plus {@linkplain #keySize(int) key size},
-     * plus {@linkplain #valueSize(int) value size}, plus a few bytes required by implementations,
-     * with respect to {@linkplain #entryAndValueAlignment(Alignment) alignment}. 
 
Note that
-     * the actual entrySize will be aligned by the configured {@linkplain
-     * #entryAndValueAlignment(Alignment) entry and value alignment}. I. e. if you set entry size to
-     * 30, and entry alignment is set to {@link Alignment#OF_4_BYTES}, the actual entry size will be
-     * 32 (30 aligned to 4 bytes).
+     * {@inheritDoc}
      *
      * @throws IllegalStateException is sizes of both keys and values of maps created by this
-     *                               builder are statically known, hence entry size shouldn't be
+     *                               builder are constant, hence chunk size shouldn't be
      *                               configured by user
      * @see #entryAndValueAlignment(Alignment)
      * @see #entries(long)
-     * @see #maxEntryOversizeFactor(int)
+     * @see #maxChunksPerEntry(int)
      */
     @Override
-    public ChronicleMapBuilder entrySize(int entrySize) {
-        if (keyBuilder.sizeIsStaticallyKnown && valueBuilder.sizeIsStaticallyKnown) {
+    public ChronicleMapBuilder actualChunkSize(int actualChunkSize) {
+        if (constantlySizedEntries()) {
             throw new IllegalStateException("Sizes of key type: " + keyBuilder.eClass + " and " +
-                    "value type: " + valueBuilder.eClass + " are both statically known, " +
-                    "so entry size shouldn't be specified manually");
+                    "value type: " + valueBuilder.eClass + " are both constant, " +
+                    "so chunk size shouldn't be specified manually");
         }
-        if (entrySize <= 0)
-            throw new IllegalArgumentException("Entry Size must be positive");
-        this.entrySize = entrySize;
+        if (actualChunkSize <= 0)
+            throw new IllegalArgumentException("Chunk size must be positive");
+        this.actualChunkSize = actualChunkSize;
         return this;
     }
 
-    int entrySize(boolean replicated) {
-        if (entrySize > 0)
-            return entryAndValueAlignment().alignSize(entrySize);
-        int size = metaDataBytes;
-        int keySize = keySize();
-        size += keyBuilder.sizeMarshaller().sizeEncodingSize(keySize);
+    double averageEntrySize(boolean replicated) {
+        double size = metaDataBytes;
+        double keySize = averageKeySize();
+        size += averageSizeEncodingSize(keyBuilder, keySize);
         size += keySize;
         if (replicated)
             size += ReplicatedChronicleMap.ADDITIONAL_ENTRY_BYTES;
-        int valueSize = valueSize();
-        size += valueBuilder.sizeMarshaller().sizeEncodingSize(valueSize);
-        size = entryAndValueAlignment().alignSize(size);
-        size += valueSize;
-        // Some cache line heuristics
-        for (int i = 1; i <= 4; i++) {
-            int bound = i * 64;
-            // Not more than 5% oversize.
-            // DEFAULT_KEY_OR_VALUE_SIZE and this heuristic are specially adjusted to produce
-            // entry size 256 -- the default value prior to keySize and valueSize -- when key and
-            // value sizes are both not static nor configured, in both vanilla and replicated modes.
-            if (size < bound && (bound - size) <= bound / 20) {
-                size = bound;
-                break;
-            }
-        }
-        return entryAndValueAlignment().alignSize(size);
-    }
-
-    @Override
-    public ChronicleMapBuilder maxEntryOversizeFactor(int maxEntryOversizeFactor) {
-        if (maxEntryOversizeFactor < 1)
-            throw new IllegalArgumentException("maxEntryOversizeFactor should be more than 1, " +
-                    maxEntryOversizeFactor + " given");
-        this.maxEntryOversizeFactor = maxEntryOversizeFactor;
-        return this;
-    }
-
-    private void checkMaxEntryOversizeFactorIfReplicated(boolean replicated) {
-        if (replicated && maxEntryOversizeFactor > MAX_ENTRY_OVERSIZE_FACTOR)
-            throw new IllegalStateException("As of now Replicated Chornicle Map doesn't support " +
-                    "more than " + MAX_ENTRY_OVERSIZE_FACTOR + " entry oversize factor, " +
-                    maxEntryOversizeFactor + " is configured");
-    }
-
-    int maxEntryOversizeFactor(boolean replicated) {
-        if (maxEntryOversizeFactor < 0) {
-            if (keyBuilder.constantSizeMarshaller() && valueBuilder.constantSizeMarshaller()) {
-                return 1;
-            } else {
-                if (replicated) {
-                    return MAX_ENTRY_OVERSIZE_FACTOR;
+        double valueSize = averageValueSize();
+        size += averageSizeEncodingSize(valueBuilder, valueSize);
+        Alignment alignment = valueAlignment();
+        if (alignment != Alignment.NO_ALIGNMENT) {
+            if (constantlySizedKeys() && valueBuilder.constantSizeEncodingSizeMarshaller()) {
+                long constantSizeBeforeAlignment = round(size);
+                if (constantlySizedValues()) {
+                    // see specialEntrySpaceOffset()
+                    long totalDataSize = constantSizeBeforeAlignment + constantValueSize();
+                    size += alignment.alignAddr(totalDataSize) - totalDataSize;
                 } else {
-                    return Integer.MAX_VALUE;
+                    if (actualChunkSize > 0) {
+                        size += averageAlignmentAssumingChunkSize(constantSizeBeforeAlignment,
+                                actualChunkSize);
+                    } else {
+                        for (int chunkSize : new int[]{8, 4}) {
+                            double expectedAverageAlignment = averageAlignmentAssumingChunkSize(
+                                    constantSizeBeforeAlignment, chunkSize);
+                            if (size + expectedAverageAlignment + valueSize >=
+                                    maxDefaultChunksPerAverageEntry(replicated) * chunkSize ||
+                                    chunkSize == 4) {
+                                size += expectedAverageAlignment;
+                                break;
+                            }
+                        }
+                    }
+                }
+            } else {
+                if (alignment.alignment() > 0) {
+                    // assume worst case, we always lose most possible bytes for alignment
+                    size += alignment.alignment() - 1;
                 }
             }
         }
-        return maxEntryOversizeFactor;
+        size += valueSize;
+        return size;
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * This is needed, if chunkSize = constant entry size is not aligned, for entry alignment to
+     * be always the same, we should _misalign_ the first chunk.
+     */
+    int specialEntrySpaceOffset(boolean replicated) {
+        if (!constantlySizedEntries() || valueAlignment() == Alignment.NO_ALIGNMENT)
+            return 0;
+        return (int) (constantValueSize() % valueAlignment().alignment());
+    }
+
+    private long constantValueSize() {
+        return valueBuilder.pseudoReadConstantSize();
+    }
+
+    private boolean constantlySizedKeys() {
+        return keyBuilder.constantSizeMarshaller();
+    }
+
+    private static double averageSizeEncodingSize(
+            SerializationBuilder builder, double averageSize) {
+        SizeMarshaller sizeMarshaller = builder.sizeMarshaller();
+        if (averageSize == round(averageSize))
+            return sizeMarshaller.sizeEncodingSize(round(averageSize));
+        long lower = (long) averageSize;
+        long upper = lower + 1;
+        int lowerEncodingSize = sizeMarshaller.sizeEncodingSize(lower);
+        int upperEncodingSize = sizeMarshaller.sizeEncodingSize(upper);
+        if (lowerEncodingSize == upperEncodingSize)
+            return lowerEncodingSize;
+        return lower * (upper - averageSize) + upper * (averageSize - lower);
+    }
+
+    private double averageAlignmentAssumingChunkSize(
+            long constantSizeBeforeAlignment, int chunkSize) {
+        if (valueAlignment() == Alignment.NO_ALIGNMENT)
+            return 0.0;
+        Alignment valueAlignment = valueAlignment();
+        long firstAlignment = valueAlignment.alignAddr(constantSizeBeforeAlignment) -
+                constantSizeBeforeAlignment;
+        int alignment = valueAlignment.alignment();
+        int gcdOfAlignmentAndChunkSize = greatestCommonDivisor(alignment, chunkSize);
+        if (gcdOfAlignmentAndChunkSize == alignment)
+            return firstAlignment;
+        // assume worst by now because we cannot predict alignment in VanillaCM.entrySize() method
+        // before allocation
+        return alignment - gcdOfAlignmentAndChunkSize;
+    }
+
+    static int greatestCommonDivisor(int a, int b) {
+        if (b == 0) return a;
+        return greatestCommonDivisor(b, a % b);
+    }
+
+    long chunkSize(boolean replicated) {
+        if (actualChunkSize > 0)
+            return actualChunkSize;
+        double averageEntrySize = averageEntrySize(replicated);
+        if (constantlySizedEntries())
+            return round(averageEntrySize);
+        int maxChunkSize = 1 << 30;
+        for (long chunkSize = 4; chunkSize <= maxChunkSize; chunkSize *= 2L) {
+            if (maxDefaultChunksPerAverageEntry(replicated) * chunkSize > averageEntrySize)
+                return chunkSize;
+        }
+        return maxChunkSize;
+    }
+
+    boolean constantlySizedEntries() {
+        return constantlySizedKeys() && constantlySizedValues();
+    }
+
+    double averageChunksPerEntry(boolean replicated) {
+        if (constantlySizedEntries())
+            return 1.0;
+        long chunkSize = chunkSize(replicated);
+        // assuming we always has worst internal fragmentation. This affects total segment
+        // entry space which is allocated lazily on Linux (main target platform)
+        // so we can afford this
+        return (averageEntrySize(replicated) + chunkSize - 1) / chunkSize;
+    }
+
+    private static int maxDefaultChunksPerAverageEntry(boolean replicated) {
+        return replicated ? 4 : 8;
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public ChronicleMapBuilder maxChunksPerEntry(int maxChunksPerEntry) {
+        if (maxChunksPerEntry < 1)
+            throw new IllegalArgumentException("maxChunksPerEntry should be >= 1, " +
+                    maxChunksPerEntry + " given");
+        this.maxChunksPerEntry = maxChunksPerEntry;
+        return this;
+    }
+
+    int maxChunksPerEntry() {
+        if (maxChunksPerEntry > 0)
+            return maxChunksPerEntry;
+        if (constantlySizedEntries()) {
+            return 1;
+        } else {
+            return Integer.MAX_VALUE;
+        }
+    }
+
+    private boolean constantlySizedValues() {
+        return valueBuilder.constantSizeMarshaller();
     }
 
     /**
      * Configures alignment strategy of address in memory of entries and independently of address in
-     * memory of values within entries in ChronicleMaps, created by this builder. 
 
Useful when
-     * values of the map are updated intensively, particularly fields with volatile access, because
-     * it doesn't work well if the value crosses cache lines. Also, on some (nowadays rare)
-     * architectures any misaligned memory access is more expensive than aligned. 
 
Note that
-     * {@linkplain #entrySize(int) entry size} will be aligned according to this alignment. I. e. if
-     * you set {@code entrySize(20)} and {@link Alignment#OF_8_BYTES}, actual entry size will be 24
-     * (20 aligned to 8 bytes). 
 
If values couldn't reference off-heap memory (i. e. it is not
-     * {@link Byteable} or "data value generated"), alignment configuration makes no sense and
-     * forbidden. 
 
Default is {@link Alignment#NO_ALIGNMENT} if values couldn't reference
-     * off-heap memory, otherwise chosen heuristically (configure explicitly for being sure and to
-     * compare performance in your case).
+     * memory of values within entries in ChronicleMaps, created by this builder.
+     *
+     * 
Useful when values of the map are updated intensively, particularly fields with volatile
+     * access, because it doesn't work well if the value crosses cache lines. Also, on some
+     * (nowadays rare) architectures any misaligned memory access is more expensive than aligned.
+     *
+     * 
If values couldn't reference off-heap memory (i. e. it is not {@link Byteable} or "data
+     * value generated"), alignment configuration makes no sense and forbidden.
+     *
+     * 
Default is {@link Alignment#NO_ALIGNMENT} if values couldn't reference off-heap memory,
+     * otherwise chosen heuristically (configure explicitly for being sure and to compare
+     * performance in your case).
      *
      * @param alignment the new alignment of the maps constructed by this builder
      * @return this {@code ChronicleMapOnHeapUpdatableBuilder} back
@@ -452,7 +568,7 @@ public final class ChronicleMapBuilder implements Cloneable,
                     "if values might point to off-heap memory");
     }
 
-    Alignment entryAndValueAlignment() {
+    Alignment valueAlignment() {
         if (alignment != null)
             return alignment;
         Class firstPrimitiveFieldType = firstPrimitiveFieldType(valueBuilder.eClass);
@@ -463,11 +579,6 @@ public final class ChronicleMapBuilder implements Cloneable,
         return Alignment.NO_ALIGNMENT;
     }
 
-    /**
-     * Package-private for tests
-     */
-
-
     @Override
     public ChronicleMapBuilder entries(long entries) {
         if (entries <= 0L)
@@ -477,43 +588,80 @@ public final class ChronicleMapBuilder implements Cloneable,
     }
 
     long entries() {
+        if (entries < 0)
+            return DEFAULT_ENTRIES;
         return entries;
     }
 
     @Override
-    public ChronicleMapBuilder actualEntriesPerSegment(long actualEntriesPerSegment) {
-        if (actualEntriesPerSegment <= 0L)
-            throw new IllegalArgumentException("entries per segment should be positive, " +
-                    actualEntriesPerSegment + " given");
-        if (tooManyEntriesPerSegment(actualEntriesPerSegment))
-            throw new IllegalArgumentException("max entries per segment is " +
-                    MultiMapFactory.MAX_CAPACITY + ", " + actualEntriesPerSegment + " given");
-        this.actualEntriesPerSegment = actualEntriesPerSegment;
+    public ChronicleMapBuilder entriesPerSegment(long entriesPerSegment) {
+        if (entriesPerSegment <= 0L)
+            throw new IllegalArgumentException("Entries per segment should be positive, " +
+                    entriesPerSegment + " given");
+        this.entriesPerSegment = entriesPerSegment;
         return this;
     }
 
-    private boolean tooManyEntriesPerSegment(long entriesPerSegment) {
-        return entriesPerSegment > MultiMapFactory.MAX_CAPACITY;
+    long entriesPerSegment(boolean replicated) {
+        long entriesPerSegment;
+        if (this.entriesPerSegment > 0L) {
+            entriesPerSegment = this.entriesPerSegment;
+        } else {
+            int actualSegments = actualSegments(replicated);
+            long totalEntries = totalEntriesIfPoorDistribution(actualSegments);
+            entriesPerSegment = divideUpper(totalEntries, actualSegments);
+        }
+        if (actualChunksPerSegment > 0)
+            return entriesPerSegment;
+        double averageChunksPerEntry = averageChunksPerEntry(replicated);
+        if (entriesPerSegment * averageChunksPerEntry > MultiMapFactory.MAX_CAPACITY)
+            throw new IllegalStateException("Max chunks per segment is " +
+                    MultiMapFactory.MAX_CAPACITY + " configured entries() and " +
+                    "actualSegments() so that there should be " + entriesPerSegment +
+                    " entries per segment, while average chunks per entry is " +
+                    averageChunksPerEntry);
+        return entriesPerSegment;
     }
 
-    long actualEntriesPerSegment() {
-        if (actualEntriesPerSegment > 0L)
-            return actualEntriesPerSegment;
-        int actualSegments = actualSegments();
-        long actualEntries = totalEntriesIfPoorDistribution(actualSegments);
-        long actualEntriesPerSegment = divideUpper(actualEntries, actualSegments);
-        if (tooManyEntriesPerSegment(actualEntriesPerSegment))
-            throw new IllegalStateException("max entries per segment is " +
-                    MultiMapFactory.MAX_CAPACITY + " configured entries() and " +
-                    "actualSegments() so that there should be " + actualEntriesPerSegment +
-                    " entries per segment");
-        return actualEntriesPerSegment;
+    @Override
+    public ChronicleMapBuilder actualChunksPerSegment(long actualChunksPerSegment) {
+        if (actualChunksPerSegment <= 0)
+            throw new IllegalArgumentException("Actual chunks per segment should be positive, " +
+                    actualChunksPerSegment + " given");
+        this.actualChunksPerSegment = actualChunksPerSegment;
+        return this;
+    }
+
+    private void checkActualChunksPerSegmentIsConfiguredOnlyIfOtherLowLevelConfigsAreManual() {
+        if (actualChunksPerSegment > 0) {
+            if (entriesPerSegment <= 0 || (actualChunkSize <= 0 && !constantlySizedEntries()) ||
+                    actualSegments <= 0)
+                throw new IllegalStateException("Actual chunks per entry could be configured " +
+                        "only if other three low level configs are manual: " +
+                        "entriesPerSegment(), actualSegments() and actualChunkSize(), unless " +
+                        "both keys and value sizes are constant");
+        }
+    }
+
+    private void checkActualChunksPerSegmentGreaterOrEqualToEntries() {
+        if (actualChunksPerSegment > 0 && entriesPerSegment > 0 &&
+                entriesPerSegment > actualChunksPerSegment) {
+            throw new IllegalStateException("Entries per segment couldn't be greater than " +
+                    "actual chunks per segment. Entries: " + entriesPerSegment + ", " +
+                    "chunks: " + actualChunksPerSegment + " is configured");
+        }
+    }
+
+    long actualChunksPerSegment(boolean replicated) {
+        if (actualChunksPerSegment > 0)
+            return actualChunksPerSegment;
+        return round(entriesPerSegment(replicated) * averageChunksPerEntry(replicated));
     }
 
     private long totalEntriesIfPoorDistribution(int segments) {
         if (segments == 1)
-            return entries;
-        long entries = this.entries;
+            return entries();
+        long entries = entries();
         // check if the number of entries is small compared with the number of segments.
         long s3 = (long) Math.min(8, segments) * Math.min(32, segments) * Math.min(128, segments);
         if (entries * 4 <= s3)
@@ -528,7 +676,7 @@ public final class ChronicleMapBuilder implements Cloneable,
             entries *= 1.15;
         else
             entries *= 1.1;
-        return Math.min(segments * this.entries,
+        return Math.min(segments * entries(),
                 entries + 4 * segments + 8);
     }
 
@@ -544,19 +692,19 @@ public final class ChronicleMapBuilder implements Cloneable,
     }
 
     private int estimateSegments() {
-        return (int) Math.min(Maths.nextPower2(entries / 32, 1), estimateSegmentsBasedOnSize());
+        return (int) Math.min(Maths.nextPower2(entries() / 32, 1), estimateSegmentsBasedOnSize());
     }
 
     private int estimateSegmentsBasedOnSize() {
         // based on entries with multimap of 100 bytes.
-        int segmentsForEntries = estimateSegmentsForEntries(entries);
-        return entrySize >= 1000000
+        int segmentsForEntries = estimateSegmentsForEntries(entries());
+        return actualChunkSize >= 1000000
                 ? segmentsForEntries * 16
-                : entrySize >= 100000
+                : actualChunkSize >= 100000
                 ? segmentsForEntries * 8
-                : entrySize >= 10000
+                : actualChunkSize >= 10000
                 ? segmentsForEntries * 4
-                : entrySize >= 1000
+                : actualChunkSize >= 1000
                 ? segmentsForEntries * 2
                 : segmentsForEntries;
     }
@@ -584,36 +732,51 @@ public final class ChronicleMapBuilder implements Cloneable,
         return this;
     }
 
-    int actualSegments() {
+    int actualSegments(boolean replicated) {
         if (actualSegments > 0)
             return actualSegments;
+        if (entriesPerSegment > 0) {
+            long segments = 1;
+            for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++) { // try to converge
+                long totalEntries = totalEntriesIfPoorDistribution((int) segments);
+                segments = divideUpper(totalEntries, entriesPerSegment);
+                if (segments > MAX_SEGMENTS)
+                    throw new IllegalStateException();
+            }
+            if (minSegments > 0)
+                segments = Math.max(minSegments, segments);
+            return (int) segments;
+        }
         long shortMMapSegments = trySegments(MultiMapFactory.I16_MAX_CAPACITY,
-                MAX_SEGMENTS_TO_CHAISE_COMPACT_MULTI_MAPS);
+                MAX_SEGMENTS_TO_CHAISE_COMPACT_MULTI_MAPS, replicated);
+        // TODO why not try I24 multiMap?
         if (shortMMapSegments > 0L)
             return (int) shortMMapSegments;
-        long intMMapSegments = trySegments(MultiMapFactory.MAX_CAPACITY, MAX_SEGMENTS);
+        long intMMapSegments = trySegments(MultiMapFactory.MAX_CAPACITY, MAX_SEGMENTS, replicated);
         if (intMMapSegments > 0L)
             return (int) intMMapSegments;
         throw new IllegalStateException("Max segments is " + MAX_SEGMENTS + ", configured so much" +
-                " entries() that builder automatically decided to use " +
+                " entries (" + entries() + ") or average chunks per entry is too high (" +
+                averageChunksPerEntry(replicated) + ") that builder automatically decided to use " +
                 (-intMMapSegments) + " segments");
     }
 
-    private long trySegments(long maxSegmentCapacity, int maxSegments) {
-        long segments = divideUpper(totalEntriesIfPoorDistribution(minSegments()),
-                maxSegmentCapacity);
+    private long trySegments(long maxSegmentCapacity, int maxSegments, boolean replicated) {
+        long totalChunks = round(totalEntriesIfPoorDistribution(minSegments()) *
+                averageChunksPerEntry(replicated));
+        long segments = divideUpper(totalChunks, maxSegmentCapacity);
         segments = Maths.nextPower2(Math.max(segments, minSegments()), 1L);
         return segments <= maxSegments ? segments : -segments;
     }
 
-    int segmentHeaderSize() {
-        int segments = actualSegments();
+    int segmentHeaderSize(boolean replicated) {
+        int segments = actualSegments(replicated);
         // reduce false sharing unless we have a lot of segments.
         return segments <= 16 * 1024 ? 64 : 32;
     }
 
-    MultiMapFactory multiMapFactory() {
-        return MultiMapFactory.forCapacity(actualEntriesPerSegment());
+    MultiMapFactory multiMapFactory(boolean replicated) {
+        return MultiMapFactory.forCapacity(actualChunksPerSegment(replicated));
     }
 
     public ChronicleMapBuilder lockTimeOut(long lockTimeOut, TimeUnit unit) {
@@ -703,13 +866,14 @@ public final class ChronicleMapBuilder implements Cloneable,
                 "name=" + name +
                 ", actualSegments=" + pretty(actualSegments) +
                 ", minSegments=" + pretty(minSegments) +
-                ", actualEntriesPerSegment=" + pretty(actualEntriesPerSegment) +
-                ", keySize=" + pretty(keySize) +
+                ", entriesPerSegment=" + pretty(entriesPerSegment) +
+                ", actualChunksPerSegment=" + pretty(actualChunksPerSegment) +
+                ", averageKeySize=" + pretty(averageKeySize) +
                 ", sampleKeyForConstantSizeComputation=" + pretty(sampleKey) +
-                ", valueSize=" + pretty(valueSize) +
+                ", averageValueSize=" + pretty(averageValueSize) +
                 ", sampleValueForConstantSizeComputation=" + pretty(sampleValue) +
-                ", entrySize=" + pretty(entrySize) +
-                ", entryAndValueAlignment=" + entryAndValueAlignment() +
+                ", actualChunkSize=" + pretty(actualChunkSize) +
+                ", valueAlignment=" + valueAlignment() +
                 ", entries=" + entries() +
                 ", lockTimeOut=" + lockTimeOut + " " + lockTimeOutUnit +
                 ", metaDataBytes=" + metaDataBytes() +
@@ -773,7 +937,7 @@ public final class ChronicleMapBuilder implements Cloneable,
      * 
Example: 
{@code Map map =
      *     ChronicleMapBuilder.of(Key.class, Value.class)
      *     .entries(1_000_000)
-     *     .keySize(50).valueSize(200)
+     *     .averageKeySize(50).averageValueSize(200)
      *     // this class hasn't implemented yet, just for example
      *     .objectSerializer(new KryoObjectSerializer())
      *     .create();}

@@ -997,7 +1161,7 @@ public final class ChronicleMapBuilder implements Cloneable,
     }
 
     private void checkPrepareValueBytesOnlyIfConstantValueSize() {
-        if (prepareValueBytes != null && !valueBuilder.constantSizeMarshaller())
+        if (prepareValueBytes != null && !constantlySizedValues())
             throw new IllegalStateException("Prepare value bytes could be used only if " +
                     "value size is constant");
     }
@@ -1005,11 +1169,12 @@ public final class ChronicleMapBuilder implements Cloneable,
     PrepareValueBytesAsWriter prepareValueBytesAsWriter() {
         PrepareValueBytes prepareValueBytes = this.prepareValueBytes;
         if ((prepareValueBytes == null && defaultValueProvider() != null) ||
-                !valueBuilder.constantSizeMarshaller())
+                !constantlySizedValues())
             return null;
+        long constantValueSize = constantValueSize();
         if (prepareValueBytes == null)
-            prepareValueBytes = new ZeroOutValueBytes<>(valueSize());
-        return new PrepareValueBytesAsWriter<>(prepareValueBytes, valueSize());
+            prepareValueBytes = new ZeroOutValueBytes<>(constantValueSize);
+        return new PrepareValueBytesAsWriter<>(prepareValueBytes, constantValueSize);
     }
 
     /**
@@ -1207,21 +1372,35 @@ public final class ChronicleMapBuilder implements Cloneable,
         keyBuilder.objectSerializer(acquireObjectSerializer(JDKObjectSerializer.INSTANCE));
         valueBuilder.objectSerializer(acquireObjectSerializer(JDKObjectSerializer.INSTANCE));
 
-        long maxSize = (long) entrySize(replicated) * figureBufferAllocationFactor(replicated);
-        keyBuilder.maxSize(maxSize);
-        valueBuilder.maxSize(maxSize);
+        double largeKeySize = averageKeySize();
+        if (!constantlySizedKeys())
+            largeKeySize *= figureBufferAllocationFactor();
+        keyBuilder.maxSize(round(largeKeySize));
+        double largeValueSize = averageValueSize();
+        if (!constantlySizedValues())
+            largeValueSize *= figureBufferAllocationFactor();
+        valueBuilder.maxSize(round(largeValueSize));
 
         if (sampleKey != null)
             keyBuilder.constantSizeBySample(sampleKey);
         if (sampleValue != null)
             valueBuilder.constantSizeBySample(sampleValue);
-        stateChecks(replicated);
+        stateChecks();
     }
 
-    private void stateChecks(boolean replicated) {
+    private void stateChecks() {
+        if (strictStateChecks) {
+            if (entries < 0)
+                throw new IllegalStateException("Entries must be specified");
+            if (!constantlySizedKeys() && !isDefined(averageKeySize))
+                throw new IllegalStateException("No info about key size");
+            if (!constantlySizedValues() && !isDefined(averageValueSize))
+                throw new IllegalStateException("No info about value size");
+        }
         checkAlignmentOnlyIfValuesPossiblyReferenceOffHeap();
         checkPrepareValueBytesOnlyIfConstantValueSize();
-        checkMaxEntryOversizeFactorIfReplicated(replicated);
+        checkActualChunksPerSegmentIsConfiguredOnlyIfOtherLowLevelConfigsAreManual();
+        checkActualChunksPerSegmentGreaterOrEqualToEntries();
     }
 
     private ChronicleMap establishReplication(
@@ -1257,11 +1436,11 @@ public final class ChronicleMapBuilder implements Cloneable,
         return map;
     }
 
-    private int figureBufferAllocationFactor(boolean replicated) {
+    private int figureBufferAllocationFactor() {
         // if expected map size is about 1000, seems rather wasteful to allocate
         // key and value serialization buffers each x64 of expected entry size..
         return (int) Math.min(Math.max(2L, entries() >> 10),
-                maxEntryOversizeFactor(replicated));
+                Math.min(64, maxChunksPerEntry()));
     }
 }
 
diff --git a/src/main/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/MultiMapFactory.java b/src/main/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/MultiMapFactory.java
index d88de2fb7..49fcaf1ba 100644
--- a/src/main/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/MultiMapFactory.java
+++ b/src/main/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/MultiMapFactory.java
@@ -74,6 +74,7 @@ enum MultiMapFactory {
     public static MultiMapFactory forCapacity(long capacity) {
         if (capacity <= ShortShortMultiMap.MAX_CAPACITY)
             return I16;
+        // TODO why not I24?
 //        if (capacity <= Int24Int24MultiMap.MAX_CAPACITY)
 //            return I24;
         if (capacity <= IntIntMultiMap.MAX_CAPACITY)
diff --git a/src/main/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/ReplicatedChronicleMap.java b/src/main/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/ReplicatedChronicleMap.java
index 066a0aab5..64ee58d25 100644
--- a/src/main/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/ReplicatedChronicleMap.java
+++ b/src/main/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/ReplicatedChronicleMap.java
@@ -150,7 +150,7 @@ final class ReplicatedChronicleMap implements FindByName {
 
         this.map = (Map) ChronicleMapBuilder
                 .of(CharSequence.class, MapInstanceConfig.class)
-                .entrySize(4000)
+                .averageKeySize(10)
+                .averageValueSize(4000)
                 .entries(128)
                 .eventListener(listener)
                 .instance()
diff --git a/src/main/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/SerializationBuilder.java b/src/main/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/SerializationBuilder.java
index eef36ec81..77ba08d36 100644
--- a/src/main/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/SerializationBuilder.java
+++ b/src/main/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/SerializationBuilder.java
@@ -274,7 +274,7 @@ final class SerializationBuilder implements Cloneable, Serializable {
         }
         long constantSize = metaInterop.size(interop, sampleObject);
         if (sizeIsStaticallyKnown) {
-            int expectedConstantSize = pseudoReadConstantSize();
+            long expectedConstantSize = pseudoReadConstantSize();
             if (constantSize != expectedConstantSize) {
                 throw new IllegalStateException("Although configuring constant size by sample " +
                         "is not forbidden for types which size we already know statically, they " +
@@ -306,11 +306,22 @@ final class SerializationBuilder implements Cloneable, Serializable {
     }
 
     boolean constantSizeMarshaller() {
-        return sizeMarshaller().sizeEncodingSize(0L) == 0;
+        try {
+            return sizeMarshaller().sizeEncodingSize(1L) == 0;
+        } catch (Exception e) {
+            // size marshaller thrown likely IllegalArgumentException, that means it doesn't
+            // expect size 1. marshaller of constant size shouldn't do that, it's body should be
+            // just `return 0;`
+            return false;
+        }
     }
 
-    int pseudoReadConstantSize() {
-        return (int) sizeMarshaller().readSize(EMPTY_BYTES);
+    boolean constantSizeEncodingSizeMarshaller() {
+        return sizeMarshaller().minSizeEncodingSize() == sizeMarshaller().maxSizeEncodingSize();
+    }
+
+    long pseudoReadConstantSize() {
+        return sizeMarshaller().readSize(EMPTY_BYTES);
     }
 
     public SerializationBuilder sizeMarshaller(SizeMarshaller sizeMarshaller) {
diff --git a/src/main/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/StatelessMapConfig.java b/src/main/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/StatelessMapConfig.java
index 256e9eefa..204b317a2 100644
--- a/src/main/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/StatelessMapConfig.java
+++ b/src/main/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/StatelessMapConfig.java
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@
 package net.openhft.chronicle.map;
 
 import net.openhft.chronicle.hash.StatelessClientConfig;
+import net.openhft.lang.MemoryUnit;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.net.InetSocketAddress;
@@ -35,7 +36,7 @@ class StatelessMapConfig implements StatelessClientConfig,
@@ -62,11 +63,6 @@ class VanillaChronicleMap,
 
     private static final Logger LOG = LoggerFactory.getLogger(VanillaChronicleMap.class);
 
-    /**
-     * Because DirectBitSet implementations couldn't find more than 64 continuous clear or set
-     * bits.
-     */
-    static final int MAX_ENTRY_OVERSIZE_FACTOR = 64;
     private static final long serialVersionUID = 2L;
     final Class kClass;
     final String dataFileVersion;
@@ -84,10 +80,13 @@ class VanillaChronicleMap,
     final DefaultValueProvider defaultValueProvider;
     final PrepareValueBytesAsWriter prepareValueBytesAsWriter;
     final int metaDataBytes;
-    //   private final int replicas;
-    final long entrySize;
+    final long chunkSize;
     final Alignment alignment;
+    final boolean constantlySizedEntry;
+    final int worstAlignment;
+    final int specialEntrySpaceOffset;
     final int actualSegments;
+    final long actualChunksPerSegment;
     final long entriesPerSegment;
     final MapEventListener eventListener;
     final BytesMapEventListener bytesEventListener;
@@ -101,7 +100,7 @@ class VanillaChronicleMap,
     private final HashSplitting hashSplitting;
     final Class nativeValueClass;
     final MultiMapFactory multiMapFactory;
-    final int maxEntryOversizeFactor;
+    final int maxChunksPerEntry;
     transient Provider> keyReaderProvider;
     transient Provider keyInteropProvider;
     transient Provider> valueReaderProvider;
@@ -152,22 +151,30 @@ class VanillaChronicleMap,
         lockTimeOutNS = builder.lockTimeOut(TimeUnit.NANOSECONDS);
 
         boolean replicated = getClass() == ReplicatedChronicleMap.class;
-        this.entrySize = builder.entrySize(replicated);
-        this.alignment = builder.entryAndValueAlignment();
+        this.chunkSize = builder.chunkSize(replicated);
+        this.alignment = builder.valueAlignment();
+        this.constantlySizedEntry = builder.constantlySizedEntries();
+        int alignment = this.alignment.alignment();
+        if (this.alignment != Alignment.NO_ALIGNMENT) {
+            this.worstAlignment = alignment - greatestCommonDivisor((int) chunkSize, alignment);
+        } else {
+            this.worstAlignment = 0;
+        }
+        this.specialEntrySpaceOffset = builder.specialEntrySpaceOffset(replicated);
 
         this.errorListener = builder.errorListener();
         this.putReturnsNull = builder.putReturnsNull();
         this.removeReturnsNull = builder.removeReturnsNull();
 
-        this.actualSegments = builder.actualSegments();
-        this.entriesPerSegment = builder.actualEntriesPerSegment();
-        this.multiMapFactory = builder.multiMapFactory();
+        this.actualSegments = builder.actualSegments(replicated);
+        this.actualChunksPerSegment = builder.actualChunksPerSegment(replicated);
+        this.entriesPerSegment = builder.entriesPerSegment(replicated);
+        this.multiMapFactory = builder.multiMapFactory(replicated);
         this.metaDataBytes = builder.metaDataBytes();
         this.eventListener = builder.eventListener();
         this.bytesEventListener = builder.bytesEventListener();
-        this.segmentHeaderSize = builder.segmentHeaderSize();
-        this.maxEntryOversizeFactor =
-                builder.maxEntryOversizeFactor(this instanceof ReplicatedChronicleMap);
+        this.segmentHeaderSize = builder.segmentHeaderSize(replicated);
+        this.maxChunksPerEntry = builder.maxChunksPerEntry();
 
         hashSplitting = HashSplitting.Splitting.forSegments(actualSegments);
         initTransients();
@@ -319,11 +326,11 @@ class VanillaChronicleMap,
     }
 
     private long sizeOfMultiMapBitSet() {
-        return MultiMapFactory.sizeOfBitSetInBytes(entriesPerSegment);
+        return MultiMapFactory.sizeOfBitSetInBytes(actualChunksPerSegment);
     }
 
-    private long sizeOfBitSets() {
-        return CACHE_LINES.align(BYTES.alignAndConvert(entriesPerSegment, BITS), BYTES);
+    private long sizeOfSegmentFreeListBitSets() {
+        return CACHE_LINES.align(BYTES.alignAndConvert(actualChunksPerSegment, BITS), BYTES);
     }
 
     private int numberOfBitSets() {
@@ -333,8 +340,9 @@ class VanillaChronicleMap,
     private long segmentSize() {
         long ss = (CACHE_LINES.align(sizeOfMultiMap() + sizeOfMultiMapBitSet(), BYTES)
                 * multiMapsPerSegment())
-                + numberOfBitSets() * sizeOfBitSets() // the free list and 0+ dirty lists.
-                + sizeOfEntriesInSegment();
+                 // the free list and 0+ dirty lists.
+                 + numberOfBitSets() * sizeOfSegmentFreeListBitSets()
+                + sizeOfEntrySpaceInSegment();
         if ((ss & 63L) != 0)
             throw new AssertionError();
         return breakL1CacheAssociativityContention(ss);
@@ -356,8 +364,9 @@ class VanillaChronicleMap,
         return 1;
     }
 
-    private long sizeOfEntriesInSegment() {
-        return CACHE_LINES.align(entriesPerSegment * entrySize, BYTES);
+    private long sizeOfEntrySpaceInSegment() {
+        return CACHE_LINES.align(specialEntrySpaceOffset + actualChunksPerSegment * chunkSize,
+                BYTES);
     }
 
     @Override
@@ -1435,12 +1444,13 @@ class VanillaChronicleMap,
                     * multiMapsPerSegment();
             final NativeBytes bsBytes = new NativeBytes(ms.objectSerializer(),
                     start,
-                    start + LONGS.align(BYTES.alignAndConvert(entriesPerSegment, BITS), BYTES),
+                    start + LONGS.align(BYTES.alignAndConvert(actualChunksPerSegment, BITS), BYTES),
                     null);
             freeList = new SingleThreadedDirectBitSet(bsBytes);
-            start += numberOfBitSets() * sizeOfBitSets();
+            start += numberOfBitSets() * sizeOfSegmentFreeListBitSets();
+            start += specialEntrySpaceOffset;
             entriesOffset = start - bytes.startAddr();
-            assert bytes.capacity() >= entriesOffset + entriesPerSegment * entrySize;
+            assert bytes.capacity() >= entriesOffset + actualChunksPerSegment * chunkSize;
         }
 
         final MultiMap hashLookup() {
@@ -1591,7 +1601,7 @@ class VanillaChronicleMap,
 
         @Override
         public final long offsetFromPos(long pos) {
-            return entriesOffset + pos * entrySize;
+            return entriesOffset + pos * chunkSize;
         }
 
         final MultiStoreBytes reuse(MultiStoreBytes entry, long offset) {
@@ -1601,19 +1611,26 @@ class VanillaChronicleMap,
         }
 
         long entrySize(long keySize, long valueSize) {
-            return alignment.alignAddr(metaDataBytes +
+            long sizeOfEverythingBeforeValue = metaDataBytes +
                     keySizeMarshaller.sizeEncodingSize(keySize) + keySize +
-                    valueSizeMarshaller.sizeEncodingSize(valueSize)) + valueSize;
+                    valueSizeMarshaller.sizeEncodingSize(valueSize);
+            if (constantlySizedEntry) {
+                return alignment.alignAddr(sizeOfEverythingBeforeValue + valueSize);
+            } else if (worstAlignment > 0) {
+                return sizeOfEverythingBeforeValue + worstAlignment + valueSize;
+            } else {
+                return alignment.alignAddr(sizeOfEverythingBeforeValue) + valueSize;
+            }
         }
 
-        final int inBlocks(long sizeInBytes) {
-            if (sizeInBytes <= entrySize)
+        final int inChunks(long sizeInBytes) {
+            if (sizeInBytes <= chunkSize)
                 return 1;
             // int division is MUCH faster than long on Intel CPUs
             sizeInBytes -= 1L;
             if (sizeInBytes <= Integer.MAX_VALUE)
-                return (((int) sizeInBytes) / (int) entrySize) + 1;
-            return (int) (sizeInBytes / entrySize) + 1;
+                return (((int) sizeInBytes) / (int) chunkSize) + 1;
+            return (int) (sizeInBytes / chunkSize) + 1;
         }
 
         , RV>
@@ -1890,7 +1907,7 @@ class VanillaChronicleMap,
                       MultiStoreBytes entry, boolean writeDefaultInitialReplicationValues) {
             long valueSize = metaElemWriter.size(elemWriter, elem);
             long entrySize = entrySize(keySize, valueSize);
-            long pos = alloc(inBlocks(entrySize));
+            long pos = alloc(inChunks(entrySize));
             segmentState.pos = pos;
             long offset = offsetFromPos(pos);
             clearMetaData(offset);
@@ -1923,56 +1940,58 @@ class VanillaChronicleMap,
         }
 
         //TODO refactor/optimize
-        final long alloc(int blocks) {
-            if (blocks > maxEntryOversizeFactor)
-                throw new IllegalArgumentException("Entry is too large: requires " + blocks +
-                        " entry size chucks, " + maxEntryOversizeFactor + " is maximum.");
-            long ret = freeList.setNextNContinuousClearBits(nextPosToSearchFrom, blocks);
-            if (ret == DirectBitSet.NOT_FOUND || ret + blocks > entriesPerSegment) {
-                if (ret + blocks > entriesPerSegment)
-                    freeList.clear(ret, ret + blocks);
-                ret = freeList.setNextNContinuousClearBits(0L, blocks);
-                if (ret == DirectBitSet.NOT_FOUND || ret + blocks > entriesPerSegment) {
-                    if (ret + blocks > entriesPerSegment)
-                        freeList.clear(ret, ret + blocks);
-                    if (blocks == 1) {
+        final long alloc(int chunks) {
+            if (chunks > maxChunksPerEntry)
+                throw new IllegalArgumentException("Entry is too large: requires " + chunks +
+                        " entry size chucks, " + maxChunksPerEntry + " is maximum.");
+            long ret = freeList.setNextNContinuousClearBits(nextPosToSearchFrom, chunks);
+            if (ret == DirectBitSet.NOT_FOUND || ret + chunks > actualChunksPerSegment) {
+                if (ret != DirectBitSet.NOT_FOUND &&
+                        ret + chunks > actualChunksPerSegment && ret < actualChunksPerSegment)
+                    freeList.clear(ret, actualChunksPerSegment);
+                ret = freeList.setNextNContinuousClearBits(0L, chunks);
+                if (ret == DirectBitSet.NOT_FOUND || ret + chunks > actualChunksPerSegment) {
+                    if (ret != DirectBitSet.NOT_FOUND &&
+                            ret + chunks > actualChunksPerSegment && ret < actualChunksPerSegment)
+                        freeList.clear(ret, actualChunksPerSegment);
+                    if (chunks == 1) {
                         throw new IllegalStateException(
                                 "Segment is full, no free entries found");
                     } else {
                         throw new IllegalStateException(
-                                "Segment is full or has no ranges of " + blocks
-                                        + " continuous free blocks"
+                                "Segment is full or has no ranges of " + chunks
+                                        + " continuous free chunks"
                         );
                     }
                 }
-                updateNextPosToSearchFrom(ret, blocks);
+                updateNextPosToSearchFrom(ret, chunks);
             } else {
                 // if bit at nextPosToSearchFrom is clear, it was skipped because
-                // more than 1 block was requested. Don't move nextPosToSearchFrom
-                // in this case. blocks == 1 clause is just a fast path.
-                if (blocks == 1 || freeList.isSet(nextPosToSearchFrom)) {
-                    updateNextPosToSearchFrom(ret, blocks);
+                // more than 1 chunk was requested. Don't move nextPosToSearchFrom
+                // in this case. chunks == 1 clause is just a fast path.
+                if (chunks == 1 || freeList.isSet(nextPosToSearchFrom)) {
+                    updateNextPosToSearchFrom(ret, chunks);
                 }
             }
             return ret;
         }
 
-        private void updateNextPosToSearchFrom(long allocated, int blocks) {
-            if ((nextPosToSearchFrom = allocated + blocks) >= entriesPerSegment)
+        private void updateNextPosToSearchFrom(long allocated, int chunks) {
+            if ((nextPosToSearchFrom = allocated + chunks) >= actualChunksPerSegment)
                 nextPosToSearchFrom = 0L;
         }
 
-        private boolean realloc(long fromPos, int oldBlocks, int newBlocks) {
-            if (freeList.allClear(fromPos + oldBlocks, fromPos + newBlocks)) {
-                freeList.set(fromPos + oldBlocks, fromPos + newBlocks);
+        private boolean realloc(long fromPos, int oldChunks, int newChunks) {
+            if (freeList.allClear(fromPos + oldChunks, fromPos + newChunks)) {
+                freeList.set(fromPos + oldChunks, fromPos + newChunks);
                 return true;
             } else {
                 return false;
             }
         }
 
-        private void free(long fromPos, int blocks) {
-            freeList.clear(fromPos, fromPos + blocks);
+        private void free(long fromPos, int chunks) {
+            freeList.clear(fromPos, fromPos + chunks);
             if (fromPos < nextPosToSearchFrom)
                 nextPosToSearchFrom = fromPos;
         }
@@ -2079,7 +2098,7 @@ class VanillaChronicleMap,
             if (removeFromMultiMap) {
                 hashLookup.removePrevPos(searchState);
                 long entrySizeInBytes = entry.positionAddr() + valueSize - entry.startAddr();
-                free(pos, inBlocks(entrySizeInBytes));
+                free(pos, inChunks(entrySizeInBytes));
             } else {
                 hashLookup.removePosition(pos);
             }
@@ -2237,7 +2256,7 @@ class VanillaChronicleMap,
          * Replaces value in existing entry. May cause entry relocation, because there may be not
          * enough space for new value in location already allocated for this entry.
          *
-         * @param pos          index of the first block occupied by the entry
+         * @param pos          index of the first chunk occupied by the entry
          * @param offset       relative offset of the entry in Segment bytes (before, i. e.
          *                     including metaData)
          * @param entry        relative pointer in Segment bytes
@@ -2260,20 +2279,20 @@ class VanillaChronicleMap,
             newValueDoesNotFit:
             if (newEntryEndAddr != entryEndAddr) {
                 long oldEntrySize = entryEndAddr - entryStartAddr;
-                int oldSizeInBlocks = inBlocks(oldEntrySize);
-                int newSizeInBlocks = inBlocks(newEntryEndAddr - entryStartAddr);
-                if (newSizeInBlocks > oldSizeInBlocks) {
-                    if (newSizeInBlocks > maxEntryOversizeFactor) {
+                int oldSizeInChunks = inChunks(oldEntrySize);
+                int newSizeInChunks = inChunks(newEntryEndAddr - entryStartAddr);
+                if (newSizeInChunks > oldSizeInChunks) {
+                    if (newSizeInChunks > maxChunksPerEntry) {
                         throw new IllegalArgumentException("Value too large: " +
-                                "entry takes " + newSizeInBlocks + " blocks, " +
-                                maxEntryOversizeFactor + " is maximum.");
+                                "entry takes " + newSizeInChunks + " chunks, " +
+                                maxChunksPerEntry + " is maximum.");
                     }
-                    if (realloc(pos, oldSizeInBlocks, newSizeInBlocks))
+                    if (realloc(pos, oldSizeInChunks, newSizeInChunks))
                         break newValueDoesNotFit;
                     // RELOCATION
-                    free(pos, oldSizeInBlocks);
+                    free(pos, oldSizeInChunks);
                     onRelocation(this, pos);
-                    pos = alloc(newSizeInBlocks);
+                    pos = alloc(newSizeInChunks);
                     // putValue() is called from put() and replace()
                     // after successful search by key
                     searchedHashLookup.replacePrevPos(segmentState.searchState, pos);
@@ -2286,12 +2305,12 @@ class VanillaChronicleMap,
                             newEntryStartAddr, valueSizeAddr - entryStartAddr);
                     entry = reuse(entry, offset);
                     // END OF RELOCATION
-                } else if (newSizeInBlocks < oldSizeInBlocks) {
-                    // Freeing extra blocks
-                    freeList.clear(pos + newSizeInBlocks, pos + oldSizeInBlocks);
+                } else if (newSizeInChunks < oldSizeInChunks) {
+                    // Freeing extra chunks
+                    freeList.clear(pos + newSizeInChunks, pos + oldSizeInChunks);
                     // Do NOT reset nextPosToSearchFrom, because if value
-                    // once was larger it could easily became oversized again,
-                    // But if these blocks will be taken by that time,
+                    // once was larger it could easily became larger again,
+                    // But if these chunks will be taken by that time,
                     // this entry will need to be relocated.
                 }
             }
@@ -2356,10 +2375,10 @@ class VanillaChronicleMap,
                     manageReplicationBytes(entry, false, false);
                     long valueSize = valueSizeMarshaller.readSize(entry);
                     long sizeInBytes = entrySize(keySize, valueSize);
-                    int entrySizeInBlocks = inBlocks(sizeInBytes);
-                    if (!freeList.allSet(pos, pos + entrySizeInBlocks))
+                    int entrySizeInChunks = inChunks(sizeInBytes);
+                    if (!freeList.allSet(pos, pos + entrySizeInChunks))
                         throw new AssertionError();
-                    pos += entrySizeInBlocks;
+                    pos += entrySizeInChunks;
                 }
             } finally {
                 readUnlock();
@@ -2503,7 +2522,7 @@ class VanillaChronicleMap,
             final long entryEndAddr = entry.positionAddr() + valueSize;
             if (removeFromMultiMap) {
                 segment.hashLookup().remove(segmentHash, pos);
-                segment.free(pos, segment.inBlocks(entryEndAddr - entry.address()));
+                segment.free(pos, segment.inChunks(entryEndAddr - entry.address()));
             } else {
                 segment.hashLookup().removePosition(pos);
             }
diff --git a/src/main/java/net/openhft/chronicle/set/ChronicleSetBuilder.java b/src/main/java/net/openhft/chronicle/set/ChronicleSetBuilder.java
index 6ecb96ac3..1db8d0c3d 100755
--- a/src/main/java/net/openhft/chronicle/set/ChronicleSetBuilder.java
+++ b/src/main/java/net/openhft/chronicle/set/ChronicleSetBuilder.java
@@ -92,31 +92,38 @@ public final class ChronicleSetBuilder
     }
 
     @Override
-    public ChronicleSetBuilder actualEntriesPerSegment(long actualEntriesPerSegment) {
-        chronicleMapBuilder.actualEntriesPerSegment(actualEntriesPerSegment);
+    public ChronicleSetBuilder entriesPerSegment(long entriesPerSegment) {
+        chronicleMapBuilder.entriesPerSegment(entriesPerSegment);
+        return this;
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public ChronicleSetBuilder actualChunksPerSegment(long actualChunksPerSegment) {
+        chronicleMapBuilder.actualChunksPerSegment(actualChunksPerSegment);
         return this;
     }
 
     /**
      * {@inheritDoc}
      *
-     * 
Example: if keys in your set(s) are English words in {@link String} form, keys size 10
-     * (a bit more than average English word length) would be a good choice: 
{@code
+     * 
Example: if keys in your set(s) are English words in {@link String} form, average English
+     * word length is 5.1, configure average key size of 6: 
{@code
      * ChronicleSet uniqueWords = ChronicleSetBuilder.of(String.class)
      *     .entries(50000)
-     *     .keySize(10)
+     *     .averageKeySize(6)
      *     .create();}

      *
-     * 
(Note that 10 is chosen as key size in bytes despite strings in Java are UTF-16 encoded
-     * (and each character takes 2 bytes on-heap), because default off-heap {@link String} encoding
-     * is UTF-8 in {@code ChronicleSet}.)
+     * 
(Note that 6 is chosen as average key size in bytes despite strings in Java are UTF-16
+     * encoded (and each character takes 2 bytes on-heap), because default off-heap {@link String}
+     * encoding is UTF-8 in {@code ChronicleSet}.)
      *
      * @see #constantKeySizeBySample(Object)
-     * @see #entrySize(int)
+     * @see #actualChunkSize(int)
+     * @param averageKeySize
      */
     @Override
-    public ChronicleSetBuilder keySize(int keySize) {
-        chronicleMapBuilder.keySize(keySize);
+    public ChronicleSetBuilder averageKeySize(double averageKeySize) {
+        chronicleMapBuilder.averageKeySize(averageKeySize);
         return this;
     }
 
@@ -128,7 +135,7 @@ public final class ChronicleSetBuilder
      *     .constantKeySizeBySample(new byte[20])
      *     .create();}

      *
-     * @see #keySize(int)
+     * @see ChronicleHashBuilder#averageKeySize(double)
      */
     @Override
     public ChronicleSetBuilder constantKeySizeBySample(E sampleKey) {
@@ -136,26 +143,15 @@ public final class ChronicleSetBuilder
         return this;
     }
 
-    /**
-     * {@inheritDoc}
-     *
-     * 
In fully default case you can expect entry size to be about 120-130 bytes. But it is
-     * strongly recommended always to configure {@linkplain #keySize(int) key size}, if they
-     * couldn't be derived statically.
-     *
-     * 
If entry size is not configured explicitly by calling this method, it is computed based on
-     * {@linkplain #metaDataBytes(int) meta data bytes}, plus {@linkplain #keySize(int) key size},
-     * plus a few bytes required by implementations.
-     */
     @Override
-    public ChronicleSetBuilder entrySize(int entrySize) {
-        chronicleMapBuilder.entrySize(entrySize);
+    public ChronicleSetBuilder actualChunkSize(int actualChunkSize) {
+        chronicleMapBuilder.actualChunkSize(actualChunkSize);
         return this;
     }
 
     @Override
-    public ChronicleSetBuilder maxEntryOversizeFactor(int maxEntryOversizeFactor) {
-        chronicleMapBuilder.maxEntryOversizeFactor(maxEntryOversizeFactor);
+    public ChronicleSetBuilder maxChunksPerEntry(int maxChunksPerEntry) {
+        chronicleMapBuilder.maxChunksPerEntry(maxChunksPerEntry);
         return this;
     }
 
diff --git a/src/main/java/net/openhft/chronicle/set/DummyValueMarshaller.java b/src/main/java/net/openhft/chronicle/set/DummyValueMarshaller.java
index ddb3956f7..877757afa 100644
--- a/src/main/java/net/openhft/chronicle/set/DummyValueMarshaller.java
+++ b/src/main/java/net/openhft/chronicle/set/DummyValueMarshaller.java
@@ -64,6 +64,16 @@ enum DummyValueMarshaller
         return 0;
     }
 
+    @Override
+    public int minSizeEncodingSize() {
+        return 0;
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public int maxSizeEncodingSize() {
+        return 0;
+    }
+
     @Override
     public void writeSize(Bytes bytes, long size) {
         // do nothing
diff --git a/src/test/java/eg/TestNesterInterfaceMarshal.java b/src/test/java/eg/TestNesterInterfaceMarshal.java
index e03d8d69f..eff7d284e 100644
--- a/src/test/java/eg/TestNesterInterfaceMarshal.java
+++ b/src/test/java/eg/TestNesterInterfaceMarshal.java
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ public class TestNesterInterfaceMarshal {
             ChronicleMapBuilder builder = ChronicleMapBuilder
                     .of(CharSequence.class, TestInstrumentVOInterface.class)
                     .entries(5000L)
-                    .keySize(10)
+                    .averageKeySize(10)
                     .replication((byte) 1, tcpTransportAndNetworkConfig);
 
 
@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ public class TestNesterInterfaceMarshal {
                     .of(CharSequence.class, TestInstrumentVOInterface.class)
                     .putReturnsNull(true)
                     .removeReturnsNull(true)
-                    .entries(5000L).keySize(10)
+                    .entries(5000L).averageKeySize(10)
                     .replication((byte) 2, tcpTransportAndNetworkConfig1);
 
 
@@ -120,7 +120,7 @@ public class TestNesterInterfaceMarshal {
             ChronicleMapBuilder builder = ChronicleMapBuilder
                     .of(CharSequence.class, TestInstrumentVOInterface.class)
                     .entries(5000L)
-                    .keySize(10)
+                    .averageKeySize(10)
                     .replication((byte) 1, tcpTransportAndNetworkConfig);
 
 
@@ -145,7 +145,7 @@ public class TestNesterInterfaceMarshal {
                     .putReturnsNull(true)
                     .removeReturnsNull(true)
                     .entries(5000L)
-                    .keySize(10)
+                    .averageKeySize(10)
                     .replication((byte) 2, tcpTransportAndNetworkConfig);
 
 
diff --git a/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/CHMUseCasesTest.java b/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/CHMUseCasesTest.java
index 1ff200aeb..8dbc45a82 100644
--- a/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/CHMUseCasesTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/CHMUseCasesTest.java
@@ -186,9 +186,15 @@ public class CHMUseCasesTest {
 
             map1.getAll(file);
 
-            try (ChronicleMap actual = ChronicleMapBuilder.of(map1.keyClass(),
+            VanillaChronicleMap vanillaMap = (VanillaChronicleMap) map1;
+            ChronicleMapBuilder builder = ChronicleMapBuilder.of(map1.keyClass(),
                     map1.valueClass())
-                    .create()) {
+                    .entriesPerSegment(vanillaMap.entriesPerSegment)
+                    .actualSegments(vanillaMap.actualSegments)
+                    .actualChunksPerSegment(vanillaMap.actualChunksPerSegment);
+            if (!vanillaMap.constantlySizedEntry)
+                builder.actualChunkSize((int) vanillaMap.chunkSize);
+            try (ChronicleMap actual = builder.create()) {
                 actual.putAll(file);
 
 
@@ -211,7 +217,6 @@ public class CHMUseCasesTest {
 
     private  ChronicleMap newInstance(ChronicleMapBuilder builder) throws
             IOException {
-
         switch (typeOfMap) {
 
             case SIMPLE:
@@ -378,7 +383,7 @@ public class CHMUseCasesTest {
             return; // acquireUsingLocked not supported by the STATELESS client
 
         ChronicleMapBuilder builder = ChronicleMapBuilder.of(String.class, BondVOInterface.class)
-                .keySize(10);
+                .averageKeySize(10);
 
         try (ChronicleMap chm = newInstance(builder)) {
             BondVOInterface bondVO = chm.newValueInstance();
@@ -419,7 +424,8 @@ public class CHMUseCasesTest {
 
 
     @Test
-    public void testOversizedEntry() throws ExecutionException, InterruptedException, IOException {
+    public void testEntrySpanningSeveralChunks()
+            throws ExecutionException, InterruptedException, IOException {
 
         int salefactor = 100;
         int valueSize = 10 * salefactor;
@@ -429,8 +435,8 @@ public class CHMUseCasesTest {
 
         ChronicleMapBuilder builder = ChronicleMapBuilder
                 .of(CharSequence.class, char[].class)
-                .keySize(10)
-                .valueSize(10);
+                .averageKeySize(10)
+                .averageValueSize(10);
 
         try (ChronicleMap map = newInstance(builder)) {
             map.put("Key", expected);
@@ -445,8 +451,8 @@ public class CHMUseCasesTest {
 
         ChronicleMapBuilder builder = ChronicleMapBuilder
                 .of(CharSequence.class, CharSequence.class)
-                .constantKeySizeBySample("Key")
-                .constantValueSizeBySample("Value")
+                .averageKeySize("Key".length())
+                .averageValueSize("Value".length())
                 .entries(1);
 
         try (ChronicleMap map = newInstance(builder)) {
@@ -974,7 +980,7 @@ public class CHMUseCasesTest {
 
         try (ChronicleMap map = newInstance(builder)) {
 
-            assertEquals(1, ((VanillaChronicleMap) map).maxEntryOversizeFactor);
+            assertEquals(1, ((VanillaChronicleMap) map).maxChunksPerEntry);
             Integer key1;
             Integer key2;
             Integer value1;
@@ -1043,7 +1049,7 @@ public class CHMUseCasesTest {
 
         try (ChronicleMap map = newInstance(builder)) {
 //            assertEquals(16, entrySize(map));
-//            assertEquals(1, ((VanillaChronicleMap) map).maxEntryOversizeFactor);
+//            assertEquals(1, ((VanillaChronicleMap) map).maxChunksPerEntry);
             map.put(1L, 11L);
             assertEquals((Long) 11L, map.get(1L));
 
@@ -1097,7 +1103,7 @@ public class CHMUseCasesTest {
 
         try (ChronicleMap map = newInstance(builder)) {
 
-            assertEquals(1, ((VanillaChronicleMap) map).maxEntryOversizeFactor);
+            assertEquals(1, ((VanillaChronicleMap) map).maxChunksPerEntry);
             map.put(1.0, 11.0);
             assertEquals((Double) 11.0, map.get(1.0));
 
@@ -1143,8 +1149,8 @@ public class CHMUseCasesTest {
             return;
 
         ChronicleMapBuilder builder = ChronicleMapBuilder
-                .of(byte[].class, byte[].class).keySize(4).valueSize(4)
-                .maxEntryOversizeFactor(1);
+                .of(byte[].class, byte[].class).averageKeySize(4).averageValueSize(4)
+                .entries(1000);
 
         try (ChronicleMap map = newInstance(builder)) {
             byte[] key1 = {1, 1, 1, 1};
@@ -1196,9 +1202,9 @@ public class CHMUseCasesTest {
 
         ChronicleMapBuilder builder = ChronicleMapBuilder
                 .of(ByteBuffer.class, ByteBuffer.class)
-                .keySize(8)
-                .valueSize(8)
-                .maxEntryOversizeFactor(1);
+                .averageKeySize(8)
+                .averageValueSize(8)
+                .entries(1000);
 
         try (ChronicleMap map = newInstance(builder)) {
 
@@ -1221,18 +1227,17 @@ public class CHMUseCasesTest {
 
 
     @Test
-    public void testByteBufferByteBufferMap() throws ExecutionException, InterruptedException, IOException {
+    public void testByteBufferByteBufferMap()
+            throws ExecutionException, InterruptedException, IOException {
 
         if (typeOfMap == TypeOfMap.STATELESS)
             return; // getUsingLocked supported by the STATELESS client
 
         ChronicleMapBuilder builder = ChronicleMapBuilder
                 .of(ByteBuffer.class, ByteBuffer.class)
-                .keyMarshaller(ByteBufferMarshaller.INSTANCE)
-                .valueMarshaller(ByteBufferMarshaller.INSTANCE)
-                .keySize(8)
-                .valueSize(8)
-                .maxEntryOversizeFactor(1);
+                .averageKeySize(8)
+                .averageValueSize(8)
+                .entries(1000);
 
         try (ChronicleMap map = newInstance(builder)) {
 
@@ -1259,7 +1264,8 @@ public class CHMUseCasesTest {
             assertBBEquals(ByteBuffer.wrap(new byte[]{11, 11}), map.getMapped(key1, function));
             assertEquals(null, map.getMapped(key2, function));
             mapChecks();
-            assertBBEquals(ByteBuffer.wrap(new byte[]{12, 10}), map.putMapped(key1, new UnaryOperator() {
+            assertBBEquals(ByteBuffer.wrap(new byte[]{12, 10}),
+                    map.putMapped(key1, new UnaryOperator() {
                 @Override
                 public ByteBuffer update(ByteBuffer s) {
                     s.put(0, (byte) (s.get(0) + 1));
@@ -1344,10 +1350,8 @@ public class CHMUseCasesTest {
 
         ChronicleMapBuilder builder = ChronicleMapBuilder
                 .of(ByteBuffer.class, ByteBuffer.class)
-                .valueMarshaller(ByteBufferMarshaller.INSTANCE) // we should not have to to this !
-                .keyMarshaller(ByteBufferMarshaller.INSTANCE)    // we should not have to to this !
-                .keySize(5).valueSize(5)
-                .maxEntryOversizeFactor(1);
+                .averageKeySize(5).averageValueSize(5)
+                .entries(1000);
 
         try (ChronicleMap map = newInstance(builder)) {
 
@@ -1408,7 +1412,7 @@ public class CHMUseCasesTest {
         try (ChronicleMap map = newInstance(builder)) {
             // this may change due to alignment
 //            assertEquals(8, entrySize(map));
-            assertEquals(1, ((VanillaChronicleMap) map).maxEntryOversizeFactor);
+            assertEquals(1, ((VanillaChronicleMap) map).maxChunksPerEntry);
             IntValue key1 = map.newKeyInstance();
             IntValue key2 = map.newKeyInstance();
             IntValue value1 = map.newValueInstance();
@@ -1496,7 +1500,7 @@ public class CHMUseCasesTest {
 
             // this may change due to alignment
             //assertEquals(8, entrySize(map));
-            assertEquals(1, ((VanillaChronicleMap) map).maxEntryOversizeFactor);
+            assertEquals(1, ((VanillaChronicleMap) map).maxChunksPerEntry);
             UnsignedIntValue key1 = map.newKeyInstance();
             UnsignedIntValue value1 = map.newValueInstance();
 
@@ -1615,7 +1619,7 @@ public class CHMUseCasesTest {
             // assertEquals(6, entrySize(map));
 
 
-            //     assertEquals(1, ((VanillaChronicleMap) map).maxEntryOversizeFactor);
+            //     assertEquals(1, ((VanillaChronicleMap) map).maxChunksPerEntry);
             IntValue key1 = map.newKeyInstance();
             IntValue key2 = map.newKeyInstance();
             ShortValue value1 = map.newValueInstance();
@@ -1707,7 +1711,7 @@ public class CHMUseCasesTest {
 
             // this may change due to alignment
             // assertEquals(8, entrySize(map));
-            assertEquals(1, ((VanillaChronicleMap) map).maxEntryOversizeFactor);
+            assertEquals(1, ((VanillaChronicleMap) map).maxChunksPerEntry);
             IntValue key1 = map.newKeyInstance();
             IntValue key2 = map.newKeyInstance();
             UnsignedShortValue value1 = map.newValueInstance();
@@ -1796,7 +1800,7 @@ public class CHMUseCasesTest {
         try (ChronicleMap map = newInstance(builder)) {
 
 
-            assertEquals(1, ((VanillaChronicleMap) map).maxEntryOversizeFactor);
+            assertEquals(1, ((VanillaChronicleMap) map).maxChunksPerEntry);
             IntValue key1 = map.newKeyInstance();
             IntValue key2 = map.newKeyInstance();
             CharValue value1 = map.newValueInstance();
@@ -1887,7 +1891,7 @@ public class CHMUseCasesTest {
             // TODO should be 5, but shorter fields based on range doesn't seem to be implemented
             // on data value generation level yet
             //assertEquals(8, entrySize(map)); this may change due to alignmented
-            assertEquals(1, ((VanillaChronicleMap) map).maxEntryOversizeFactor);
+            assertEquals(1, ((VanillaChronicleMap) map).maxChunksPerEntry);
 
             IntValue key1 = map.newKeyInstance();
             IntValue key2 = map.newKeyInstance();
@@ -1978,7 +1982,7 @@ public class CHMUseCasesTest {
         try (ChronicleMap map = newInstance(builder)) {
 
 
-            assertEquals(1, ((VanillaChronicleMap) map).maxEntryOversizeFactor);
+            assertEquals(1, ((VanillaChronicleMap) map).maxChunksPerEntry);
 
             IntValue key1 = map.newKeyInstance();
             IntValue key2 = map.newKeyInstance();
@@ -2069,7 +2073,7 @@ public class CHMUseCasesTest {
 
         try (ChronicleMap map = newInstance(builder)) {
 
-            assertEquals(1, ((VanillaChronicleMap) map).maxEntryOversizeFactor);
+            assertEquals(1, ((VanillaChronicleMap) map).maxChunksPerEntry);
 
             FloatValue key1 = map.newKeyInstance();
             FloatValue key2 = map.newKeyInstance();
@@ -2163,7 +2167,7 @@ public class CHMUseCasesTest {
             // this may change due to alignment
             //assertEquals(16, entrySize(map));
 
-            assertEquals(1, ((VanillaChronicleMap) map).maxEntryOversizeFactor);
+            assertEquals(1, ((VanillaChronicleMap) map).maxChunksPerEntry);
 
             DoubleValue key1 = map.newKeyInstance();
             DoubleValue key2 = map.newKeyInstance();
@@ -2258,7 +2262,7 @@ public class CHMUseCasesTest {
 
             // this may change due to alignment
             // assertEquals(16, entrySize(map));
-            assertEquals(1, ((VanillaChronicleMap) map).maxEntryOversizeFactor);
+            assertEquals(1, ((VanillaChronicleMap) map).maxChunksPerEntry);
 
             LongValue key1 = map.newKeyInstance();
             LongValue key2 = map.newKeyInstance();
@@ -2536,7 +2540,7 @@ public class CHMUseCasesTest {
             return; // acquireUsingLocked not supported by the STATELESS client
 
         ChronicleMapBuilder builder = ChronicleMapBuilder
-                .of(String.class, IBean.class).keySize(5);
+                .of(String.class, IBean.class).averageKeySize(5).entries(1000);
         try (ChronicleMap map = newInstance(builder)) {
 
             IBean iBean = map.newValueInstance();
diff --git a/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/ChronicleMapImportExportTest.java b/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/ChronicleMapImportExportTest.java
index 0f49892e9..49d6f3ec8 100644
--- a/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/ChronicleMapImportExportTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/ChronicleMapImportExportTest.java
@@ -32,16 +32,16 @@ public class ChronicleMapImportExportTest {
         File file = new File(TMP + "/chronicle-map-" + System.nanoTime() + ".json");
         file.deleteOnExit();
 
-        try (ChronicleMap expected = ChronicleMapBuilder.of(String.class, String
-                .class)
-                .create()) {
+        ChronicleMapBuilder builder = ChronicleMapBuilder
+                .of(String.class, String.class)
+                .averageKeySize(10).averageValueSize(10)
+                .entries(1000);
+        try (ChronicleMap expected = builder.create()) {
             expected.put("hello", "world");
             expected.put("aKey", "aValue");
             expected.getAll(file);
 
-            try (ChronicleMap actual = ChronicleMapBuilder.of(String.class, String
-                    .class)
-                    .create()) {
+            try (ChronicleMap actual = builder.create()) {
                 actual.putAll(file);
 
                 Assert.assertEquals(expected, actual);
@@ -58,17 +58,19 @@ public class ChronicleMapImportExportTest {
         file.deleteOnExit();
 
         System.out.println(file.getAbsoluteFile());
-        try (ChronicleMap expected = ChronicleMapBuilder.of(String.class, Map
-                .class)
+        ChronicleMapBuilder builder = ChronicleMapBuilder
+                .of(String.class, Map.class)
+                .averageKeySize("hello".length())
+                .averageValueSize(100)
+                .entries(1000);
+        try (ChronicleMap expected = builder
                 .create()) {
             HashMap data = new HashMap<>();
             data.put("myKey", "myValue");
             expected.put("hello", data);
             expected.getAll(file);
 
-            try (ChronicleMap actual = ChronicleMapBuilder.of(String.class, Map
-                    .class)
-                    .create()) {
+            try (ChronicleMap actual = builder.create()) {
                 actual.putAll(file);
 
                 Assert.assertEquals(expected, actual);
@@ -85,8 +87,10 @@ public class ChronicleMapImportExportTest {
         file.deleteOnExit();
 
         System.out.println(file.getAbsoluteFile());
-        try (ChronicleMap expected = ChronicleMapBuilder.of
-                (String.class, Map.class).create()) {
+        ChronicleMapBuilder builder = ChronicleMapBuilder
+                .of(String.class, Map.class)
+                .averageKeySize("hello".length()).averageValueSize(100).entries(1000);
+        try (ChronicleMap expected = builder.create()) {
             HashMap data = new HashMap<>();
             HashMap data2 = new HashMap<>();
             data2.put("nested", "map");
@@ -95,8 +99,7 @@ public class ChronicleMapImportExportTest {
 
             expected.getAll(file);
 
-            try (ChronicleMap actual = ChronicleMapBuilder.of(String.class, Map
-                    .class)
+            try (ChronicleMap actual = builder
                     .create()) {
                 actual.putAll(file);
 
@@ -139,15 +142,17 @@ public class ChronicleMapImportExportTest {
         file.deleteOnExit();
 
         System.out.println(file.getAbsolutePath());
-        try (ChronicleMap expected = ChronicleMapBuilder.of(CharSequence.class, CharSequence
-                .class)
+        ChronicleMapBuilder builder =
+                ChronicleMapBuilder.of(CharSequence.class, CharSequence.class)
+                .averageKeySize("hello".length()).averageValueSize("world".length())
+                .entries(1000);
+        try (ChronicleMap expected = builder
                 .create()) {
             expected.put("hello", "world");
 
             expected.getAll(file);
 
-            try (ChronicleMap actual = ChronicleMapBuilder.of(CharSequence.class, CharSequence
-                    .class)
+            try (ChronicleMap actual = builder
                     .create()) {
                 actual.putAll(file);
 
@@ -179,8 +184,11 @@ public class ChronicleMapImportExportTest {
         xstream.toXML(map, new FileOutputStream(file));
 
 
-        try (ChronicleMap expected = ChronicleMapBuilder.of(Integer.class,
-                String.class).create()) {
+        try (ChronicleMap expected = ChronicleMapBuilder
+                .of(Integer.class, String.class)
+                .averageValueSize(10)
+                .entries(1000)
+                .create()) {
 
             expected.put(1, "one");
             expected.put(2, "two");
@@ -233,9 +241,11 @@ public class ChronicleMapImportExportTest {
         //file.deleteOnExit();
 
         System.out.println(file.getAbsolutePath());
-        try (ChronicleMap expected = ChronicleMapBuilder.of(CharSequence.class, LongValue
-                .class)
-                .create()) {
+        ChronicleMapBuilder builder = ChronicleMapBuilder
+                .of(CharSequence.class, LongValue.class)
+                .averageKeySize("one".length())
+                .entries(1000);
+        try (ChronicleMap expected = builder.create()) {
             LongValue value = expected.newValueInstance();
 
             // this will add the entry
@@ -248,9 +258,7 @@ public class ChronicleMapImportExportTest {
 
             expected.getAll(file);
 
-            try (ChronicleMap actual = ChronicleMapBuilder.of(CharSequence.class, LongValue
-                    .class)
-                    .create()) {
+            try (ChronicleMap actual = builder.create()) {
 
                 actual.putAll(file);
 
@@ -269,8 +277,11 @@ public class ChronicleMapImportExportTest {
         file.deleteOnExit();
 
         System.out.println(file.getAbsolutePath());
+        ChronicleMapBuilder builder =
+                ChronicleMapBuilder.of(CharSequence.class, BondVOInterface.class)
+                        .averageKeySize("one".length()).entries(1000);
         try (ChronicleMap expected =
-                     ChronicleMapBuilder.of(CharSequence.class, BondVOInterface.class).create()) {
+                     builder.create()) {
 
             final BondVOInterface value = expected.newValueInstance();
 
@@ -286,13 +297,12 @@ public class ChronicleMapImportExportTest {
 
             expected.getAll(file);
 
-            try (ChronicleMap actual =
-                         ChronicleMapBuilder.of(CharSequence.class,
-                                 DataValueClasses.directClassFor(BondVOInterface.class)).create()) {
+            try (ChronicleMap actual = builder.create()) {
 
                 actual.putAll(file);
 
-                Assert.assertEquals(expected.get("one").getCoupon(), actual.get("one").getCoupon(), 0);
+                Assert.assertEquals(expected.get("one").getCoupon(),
+                        actual.get("one").getCoupon(), 0);
             }
         } finally {
             file.delete();
diff --git a/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/ChronicleMapTest.java b/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/ChronicleMapTest.java
index b00df52b5..9b7e5c26c 100755
--- a/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/ChronicleMapTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/ChronicleMapTest.java
@@ -108,7 +108,7 @@ public class ChronicleMapTest {
         return ChronicleMapBuilder.of(CharSequence.class, LongValue.class)
                 .entries(entries)
                 .minSegments(segments)
-                .keySize(keySize)
+                .averageKeySize(keySize)
                 .entryAndValueAlignment(alignment)
                 .create();
     }
@@ -653,7 +653,7 @@ public class ChronicleMapTest {
                     .entries(entries)
                     .actualSegments(8 * 1024)
                     .entryAndValueAlignment(OF_8_BYTES)
-                    .keySize(13);
+                    .averageKeySize(13);
 
             File tmpFile = File.createTempFile("testAcquirePerf", ".deleteme");
             tmpFile.deleteOnExit();
@@ -728,7 +728,7 @@ public class ChronicleMapTest {
                     .entries(entries)
                     .entryAndValueAlignment(OF_8_BYTES)
                     .actualSegments(256)
-                    .keySize(13);
+                    .averageKeySize(13);
 
             File tmpFile = File.createTempFile("testAcquirePerf", ".deleteme");
             tmpFile.deleteOnExit();
@@ -936,8 +936,8 @@ public class ChronicleMapTest {
                 ChronicleMapBuilder.of(CharSequence.class, CharSequence.class)
                         .entries(entries)
                         .minSegments(16)
-                        .keySize("user:".length() + 6)
-                        .valueSize("value:".length() + 6)
+                        .averageKeySize("user:".length() + 6)
+                        .averageValueSize("value:".length() + 6)
                         .putReturnsNull(true)
                         .removeReturnsNull(true).create();
         StringBuilder key = new StringBuilder();
@@ -1365,7 +1365,7 @@ public class ChronicleMapTest {
         ChronicleMap map =
                 ChronicleMapBuilder.of(Integer.class, CharSequence.class)
                         .entries(noOfElements * 2 + 100)
-                        .valueSize((noOfElements + "").length())
+                        .averageValueSize((noOfElements + "").length())
                         .putReturnsNull(true)
                         .removeReturnsNull(true).create();
 
@@ -1382,52 +1382,52 @@ public class ChronicleMapTest {
     }
 
     @Test
-    public void testOversizeEntriesPutRemoveReplace() throws IOException {
+    public void testEntriesSpanningSeveralChunksPutRemoveReplace() throws IOException {
         ChronicleMapBuilder builder = ChronicleMapBuilder.of(CharSequence.class, CharSequence.class)
                 .entries(10)
                 .minSegments(1)
-                .entrySize(10);
-        testOversizeEntriesPutRemoveReplace(
+                .actualChunkSize(10);
+        testEntriesSpanningSeveralChunksPutRemoveReplace(
                 (VanillaChronicleMap)
                         builder.createPersistedTo(getPersistenceFile())
         );
     }
 
-    public void testOversizeEntriesPutRemoveReplace(
+    public void testEntriesSpanningSeveralChunksPutRemoveReplace(
             VanillaChronicleMap map) {
         String key = "k";
-        String oversizedKey = "oversized key";
+        String largeKey = "very large key";
         String value = "v";
-        String oversizedValue = "oversized value";
+        String largeValue = "vary large value";
 
-        map.put(key, oversizedValue);
-        assertEquals(oversizedValue, map.get(key));
+        map.put(key, largeValue);
+        assertEquals(largeValue, map.get(key));
         map.replace(key, value);
         map.checkConsistency();
         assertEquals(value, map.get(key));
-        map.replace(key, oversizedValue);
+        map.replace(key, largeValue);
         map.checkConsistency();
-        assertEquals(oversizedValue, map.get(key));
+        assertEquals(largeValue, map.get(key));
 
-        map.put(oversizedKey, value);
+        map.put(largeKey, value);
         map.checkConsistency();
-        assertEquals(value, map.get(oversizedKey));
-        map.replace(oversizedKey, oversizedValue);
+        assertEquals(value, map.get(largeKey));
+        map.replace(largeKey, largeValue);
         map.checkConsistency();
-        assertEquals(oversizedValue, map.get(oversizedKey));
-        map.remove(oversizedKey);
+        assertEquals(largeValue, map.get(largeKey));
+        map.remove(largeKey);
         map.checkConsistency();
-        assertEquals(null, map.get(oversizedKey));
-        map.put(oversizedKey, oversizedValue);
+        assertEquals(null, map.get(largeKey));
+        map.put(largeKey, largeValue);
         map.checkConsistency();
-        assertEquals(oversizedValue, map.get(oversizedKey));
-        map.replace(oversizedKey, oversizedValue, value);
+        assertEquals(largeValue, map.get(largeKey));
+        map.replace(largeKey, largeValue, value);
         map.checkConsistency();
-        assertEquals(value, map.get(oversizedKey));
+        assertEquals(value, map.get(largeKey));
 
-        assertEquals(value, map.remove(oversizedKey));
+        assertEquals(value, map.remove(largeKey));
         map.checkConsistency();
-        assertEquals(oversizedValue, map.remove(key));
+        assertEquals(largeValue, map.remove(key));
         map.checkConsistency();
 
         map.close();
@@ -1488,7 +1488,7 @@ public class ChronicleMapTest {
         final ChronicleMapBuilder builder = ChronicleMapBuilder
                 .of(CharSequence.class, LongValue.class)
                 .entries(1000)
-                .keySize("x".length());
+                .averageKeySize("x".length());
 
         final ChronicleMap map = builder.create();
 
@@ -1501,7 +1501,7 @@ public class ChronicleMapTest {
         ChronicleMapBuilder builder = ChronicleMapBuilder
                 .of(CharSequence.class, LongValue.class)
                 .entries(1000)
-                .keySize("one".length());
+                .averageKeySize("one".length());
 
         final ChronicleMap map = builder.create();
 
@@ -1575,8 +1575,8 @@ public class ChronicleMapTest {
         try (final ChronicleMap map = ChronicleMapBuilder
                 .of(CharSequence.class, CharSequence.class)
                 .entries(1000)
-                .keySize("one".length())
-                .valueSize("Hello World".length())
+                .averageKeySize("one".length())
+                .averageValueSize("Hello World".length())
                 .defaultValue("")
                 .create()) {
             StringBuilder value = new StringBuilder();
@@ -1594,7 +1594,7 @@ public class ChronicleMapTest {
         ChronicleMapBuilder builder = ChronicleMapBuilder
                 .of(CharSequence.class, LongValue.class)
                 .entries(1000)
-                .keySize("one".length());
+                .averageKeySize("one".length());
         File tmpFile = File.createTempFile("testAcquireUsingLocked", ".deleteme");
         tmpFile.deleteOnExit();
         final ChronicleMap map = builder.createPersistedTo(tmpFile);
diff --git a/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/EntryCountMapTest.java b/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/EntryCountMapTest.java
index fc53b204a..0feeffe44 100644
--- a/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/EntryCountMapTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/EntryCountMapTest.java
@@ -32,11 +32,9 @@ import java.util.concurrent.Callable;
 import java.util.concurrent.ExecutorService;
 import java.util.concurrent.Executors;
 import java.util.concurrent.Future;
-import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicLong;
 
 import static java.lang.Math.log10;
 import static java.lang.Math.round;
-import static net.openhft.chronicle.map.Alignment.OF_4_BYTES;
 import static net.openhft.lang.model.DataValueClasses.newDirectReference;
 import static org.junit.Assert.assertTrue;
 import static org.junit.Assert.fail;
@@ -58,8 +56,7 @@ public class EntryCountMapTest {
                 ChronicleMapBuilder.of(CharSequence.class, LongValue.class)
                 .entries(entries)
                 .actualSegments(segments)
-                .keySize(keySize)
-                .maxEntryOversizeFactor(1);
+                .averageKeySize(keySize);
         return mapBuilder.createPersistedTo(getPersistenceFile());
     }
 
diff --git a/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/GuavaTest.java b/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/GuavaTest.java
index 10e6f6d48..b06dd2f15 100644
--- a/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/GuavaTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/GuavaTest.java
@@ -100,6 +100,7 @@ public class GuavaTest extends TestCase {
         ChronicleMapBuilder builder =
                 ChronicleMapBuilder.of(CharSequence.class, CharSequence.class)
                         .entries(100)
+                        .averageKeySize(10).averageValueSize(10)
                         .minSegments(2);
 
         @Override
diff --git a/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/Issue42Test.java b/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/Issue42Test.java
index 16cd331b8..494b7b1b6 100755
--- a/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/Issue42Test.java
+++ b/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/Issue42Test.java
@@ -34,8 +34,8 @@ public class Issue42Test {
 
         try (final ChronicleMap map = ChronicleMapBuilder
                 .of(CharSequence.class, CharSequence.class)
-                .entrySize(18)
-                .entries(1500000)
+                .averageKeySize(5.9).averageValueSize(5.9)
+                .entries(1000000)
                 .minSegments(128).create()) {
             for (int i = 0; i < 1000000; ++i) {
                 String s = String.valueOf(i);
diff --git a/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/LargeEntriesTest.java b/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/LargeEntriesTest.java
index a732624a5..d4bbe7699 100644
--- a/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/LargeEntriesTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/LargeEntriesTest.java
@@ -53,7 +53,8 @@ public class LargeEntriesTest {
                 .valueMarshaller(SnappyStringMarshaller.INSTANCE)
                 .actualSegments(1) // to force an error.
                 .entries(ENTRIES)
-                .entrySize(ENTRY_SIZE / 6)
+                .averageKeySize(10)
+                .averageValueSize(ENTRY_SIZE)
                 .putReturnsNull(true)
                 .createPersistedTo(file);
         {
@@ -69,7 +70,8 @@ public class LargeEntriesTest {
                     futureList.add(es.submit(new Runnable() {
                         @Override
                         public void run() {
-                            exerciseLargeStrings(map, finalT * block, finalT * block + block, ENTRY_SIZE);
+                            exerciseLargeStrings(map, finalT * block, finalT * block + block,
+                                    ENTRY_SIZE);
                         }
                     }));
                 }
@@ -78,7 +80,8 @@ public class LargeEntriesTest {
                 }
                 long time = System.currentTimeMillis() - start;
                 long operations = 3;
-                System.out.printf("Put/Get rate was %.1f MB/s%n", operations * ENTRIES * ENTRY_SIZE / 1e6 / (time / 1e3));
+                System.out.printf("Put/Get rate was %.1f MB/s%n",
+                        operations * ENTRIES * ENTRY_SIZE / 1e6 / (time / 1e3));
             }
             es.shutdown();
             if (es.isTerminated())
@@ -117,7 +120,8 @@ public class LargeEntriesTest {
                 .of(String.class, String.class)
                 .valueMarshaller(SnappyStringMarshaller.INSTANCE)
                 .entries(ENTRIES)
-                .entrySize(ENTRY_SIZE / 7 + 200)
+                .averageKeySize(10)
+                .averageValueSize(ENTRY_SIZE)
                 .putReturnsNull(true)
                 .createPersistedTo(file);
         {
@@ -133,7 +137,8 @@ public class LargeEntriesTest {
                     futureList.add(es.submit(new Runnable() {
                         @Override
                         public void run() {
-                            exerciseLargeStrings(map, finalT * block, finalT * block + block, ENTRY_SIZE);
+                            exerciseLargeStrings(map, finalT * block, finalT * block + block,
+                                    ENTRY_SIZE);
                         }
                     }));
                 }
diff --git a/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/MapByNameTest.java b/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/MapByNameTest.java
index ec48d929d..8a1dc3db8 100644
--- a/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/MapByNameTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/MapByNameTest.java
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ public class MapByNameTest {
         final MapInstanceConfig config =
                 (MapInstanceConfig)
                         ChronicleMapBuilder.of(CharSequence.class, CharSequence.class)
-                                .keySize("hello".length()).valueSize("world".length())
+                                .averageKeySize("hello".length()).averageValueSize("world".length())
                                 .entries(2)
                                 .minSegments(2)
                                 .replication((byte) 1, TcpTransportAndNetworkConfig.of(8244))
diff --git a/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/MarkTest.java b/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/MarkTest.java
index 9ae684c44..dd72edc40 100644
--- a/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/MarkTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/MarkTest.java
@@ -69,12 +69,10 @@ public class MarkTest {
     private static void test(Function,
             ChronicleMap> createMap) {
         long ms = System.currentTimeMillis();
-        double entriesWithMargin = ENTRIES * 1.1;
-        long actualEntriesPerSegment = (1L << 17) / 3L;
         try (ChronicleMap map = createMap.apply(ChronicleMapBuilder
                 .of(Integer.class, Integer.class)
-                .actualSegments((int) (entriesWithMargin / actualEntriesPerSegment))
-                .actualEntriesPerSegment(actualEntriesPerSegment)
+                .entries(ENTRIES)
+                .entriesPerSegment((1 << 17) / 3)
                 .putReturnsNull(true)
                 .removeReturnsNull(true))) {
 
diff --git a/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/NoEntryOversizeFactorTest.java b/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/NoUpperBoundChunksPerEntryTest.java
similarity index 85%
rename from src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/NoEntryOversizeFactorTest.java
rename to src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/NoUpperBoundChunksPerEntryTest.java
index 7c7671f94..e0cd4fc64 100644
--- a/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/NoEntryOversizeFactorTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/NoUpperBoundChunksPerEntryTest.java
@@ -19,13 +19,13 @@ package net.openhft.chronicle.map;
 import org.junit.Assert;
 import org.junit.Test;
 
-public class NoEntryOversizeFactorTest {
+public class NoUpperBoundChunksPerEntryTest {
 
     @Test
-    public void noOversizeFactorTest() {
+    public void noUpperBoundChunksPerEntryTest() {
         ChronicleMap map =
                 ChronicleMapBuilder.of(Integer.class, CharSequence.class)
-                        .valueSize(1).entries(10000L).actualSegments(1).create();
+                        .averageValueSize(1).entries(10000L).actualSegments(1).create();
         String ultraLargeValue = "";
         for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++) {
             ultraLargeValue += "Hello";
diff --git a/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/OSResizesMain.java b/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/OSResizesMain.java
index 758041c7f..6bb636c6f 100755
--- a/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/OSResizesMain.java
+++ b/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/OSResizesMain.java
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ public class OSResizesMain {
         byte[] chars = new byte[valueSize];
         ByteArray ba = new ByteArray(chars);
         ChronicleMap map = ChronicleMapBuilder.of(String.class, ByteArray.class)
-                .keySize("key-".length() + 4)
+                .averageKeySize("key-".length() + 4)
                 .constantValueSizeBySample(ba)
                 .createPersistedTo(file);
         Arrays.fill(chars, (byte) '+');
diff --git a/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/StatelessClientTest.java b/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/StatelessClientTest.java
index 8400e39da..73dcdcda7 100644
--- a/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/StatelessClientTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/StatelessClientTest.java
@@ -656,15 +656,15 @@ public class StatelessClientTest {
 
         try (ChronicleMap serverMap = ChronicleMapBuilder
                 .of(byte[].class, byte[].class)
-                .keySize(4)
-                .valueSize(4)
+                .averageKeySize(4)
+                .averageValueSize(4)
                 .replication((byte) 2, TcpTransportAndNetworkConfig.of(8056))
                 .create()) {
 
             try (ChronicleMap statelessMap = ChronicleMapBuilder
                     .of(byte[].class, byte[].class)
-                    .keySize(4)
-                    .valueSize(4)
+                    .averageKeySize(4)
+                    .averageValueSize(4)
                     .statelessClient(new InetSocketAddress("localhost", 8056))
                     .create()) {
 
diff --git a/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/TCPSocketReplication4WayMapTest.java b/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/TCPSocketReplication4WayMapTest.java
index 7ace69cb2..50113a515 100644
--- a/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/TCPSocketReplication4WayMapTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/TCPSocketReplication4WayMapTest.java
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ public class TCPSocketReplication4WayMapTest {
             final int serverPort,
             final InetSocketAddress... endpoints) throws IOException {
         return (T) newTcpSocketShmBuilder(Integer.class, CharSequence.class,
-                identifier, serverPort, endpoints).create();
+                identifier, serverPort, endpoints).averageValueSize(10).create();
     }
 
     @Before
diff --git a/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/TcpReplicationWithAcquireUsingLockedTest.java b/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/TcpReplicationWithAcquireUsingLockedTest.java
index 5a8bbeea7..cd085170d 100644
--- a/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/TcpReplicationWithAcquireUsingLockedTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/TcpReplicationWithAcquireUsingLockedTest.java
@@ -80,7 +80,7 @@ public class TcpReplicationWithAcquireUsingLockedTest {
                 (CharSequence.class,
                         TestInstrumentVOInterface
                                 .class)
-                .entries(5000L).keySize("hello".length())
+                .entries(5000L).averageKeySize("hello".length())
                 .replication((byte) 1, config1).create()) {
 
             map1a = map1;
@@ -95,7 +95,7 @@ public class TcpReplicationWithAcquireUsingLockedTest {
                     .putReturnsNull(true)
                     .removeReturnsNull(true)
                     .replication((byte) 2, config2)
-                    .entries(5000L).keySize("hello".length()).create()) {
+                    .entries(5000L).averageKeySize("hello".length()).create()) {
 
                 map2a = map2;
 
@@ -133,7 +133,7 @@ public class TcpReplicationWithAcquireUsingLockedTest {
                 (CharSequence.class,
                         TestInstrumentVOInterface
                                 .class)
-                .entries(5000L).keySize("hello".length())
+                .entries(5000L).averageKeySize("hello".length())
                 .replication((byte) 1, config1).create()) {
 
             map1a = map1;
@@ -148,7 +148,7 @@ public class TcpReplicationWithAcquireUsingLockedTest {
                     .putReturnsNull(true)
                     .removeReturnsNull(true)
                     .replication((byte) 2, config2)
-                    .entries(5000L).keySize("hello".length()).create()) {
+                    .entries(5000L).averageKeySize("hello".length()).create()) {
 
                 map2a = map2;
 
diff --git a/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/TestOversizedReplicationHub.java b/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/TestEntriesSpanningSeveralChunksReplicationHub.java
similarity index 87%
rename from src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/TestOversizedReplicationHub.java
rename to src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/TestEntriesSpanningSeveralChunksReplicationHub.java
index 790404c8e..7bc23c9d8 100644
--- a/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/TestOversizedReplicationHub.java
+++ b/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/TestEntriesSpanningSeveralChunksReplicationHub.java
@@ -15,16 +15,17 @@ import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
 /**
  * @author Rob Austin.
  */
-public class TestOversizedReplicationHub {
+public class TestEntriesSpanningSeveralChunksReplicationHub {
 
     @Test
-    public void testReplicationHubHandlesOverSizeEntries() throws IOException, InterruptedException {
+    public void testReplicationHubHandlesSpanningSeveralChunksEntries()
+            throws IOException, InterruptedException {
 
         ChronicleMap favoriteColourServer1, favoriteColourServer2;
         ChronicleMap favoriteComputerServer1, favoriteComputerServer2;
 
-        int OVERSIZE_FACTOR = 65;
-        char[] largeEntry = new char[100 * OVERSIZE_FACTOR];
+        int chunksPerEntry = 65;
+        char[] largeEntry = new char[100 * chunksPerEntry];
 
         Arrays.fill(largeEntry, 'X');
         String largeString = new String(largeEntry);
@@ -33,8 +34,9 @@ public class TestOversizedReplicationHub {
         {
             ChronicleMapBuilder builder =
                     ChronicleMapBuilder.of(CharSequence.class, CharSequence.class)
-                            .keySize(10)
-                            .valueSize(100);
+                            .averageKeySize(10)
+                            .averageValueSize(100)
+                            .entries(1000);
 
             byte identifier = (byte) 1;
 
@@ -68,8 +70,9 @@ public class TestOversizedReplicationHub {
         {
             ChronicleMapBuilder builder =
                     ChronicleMapBuilder.of(CharSequence.class, CharSequence.class)
-                            .keySize(10)
-                            .valueSize(100);
+                            .averageKeySize(10)
+                            .averageValueSize(100)
+                            .entries(1000);
 
             byte identifier = (byte) 2;
 
diff --git a/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/example/LotsOfEntriesMain.java b/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/example/LotsOfEntriesMain.java
index dc2f4a151..d72da2711 100644
--- a/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/example/LotsOfEntriesMain.java
+++ b/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/example/LotsOfEntriesMain.java
@@ -28,21 +28,11 @@ public class LotsOfEntriesMain {
             throws IOException, ExecutionException, InterruptedException {
         final long entries = 100_000_000;
         File file = new File("/tmp/lotsOfEntries.dat");
-        double averageEntrySize =
-                1 + // key size marshalling size
-                // + 2 is average oversize because we append 4-letter "-key" in a loop
-                (Math.log(1.024) - Math.log(0.024)) * 24 + 2 + // average key size
-                24 + // value size
-                2 // average loss due to value alignment. defaults to OF_4_BYTES because
-                // there are floats in values
-                ;
         final ChronicleMap map = ChronicleMapBuilder
                 .of(CharSequence.class, MyFloats.class)
-                .entries((long) (entries *
-                        (averageEntrySize / 8.0 +
-                                0.5))) // account average internal fragmentation --
-                                       // because we need to round up to integral number of chunks
-                .entrySize(8) // "chunk mode"
+                .entries(entries)
+                // + 2 is average oversize because we append 4-letter "-key" in a loop
+                .averageKeySize((Math.log(1.024) - Math.log(0.024)) * 24 + 2)
                 .createPersistedTo(file);
         int threads = Runtime.getRuntime().availableProcessors();
         ExecutorService es = Executors.newFixedThreadPool(threads);
diff --git a/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/example/StringsMapMain.java b/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/example/StringsMapMain.java
index 4d55a5bfc..34fa7da8b 100644
--- a/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/example/StringsMapMain.java
+++ b/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/example/StringsMapMain.java
@@ -41,9 +41,10 @@ public class StringsMapMain {
         int keyAndValueSize = (int) Math.round(Math.log10(entries));
         final ChronicleMap serverMap = ChronicleMapBuilder
                 .of(CharSequence.class, CharSequence.class)
+                .entries(entries)
                 .putReturnsNull(true)
-                .keySize(keyAndValueSize)
-                .valueSize(keyAndValueSize)
+                .averageKeySize(keyAndValueSize)
+                .averageValueSize(keyAndValueSize)
                 .replication((byte) 2, TcpTransportAndNetworkConfig.of(port))
                 .createPersistedTo(file);
         System.out.println("Server started");
diff --git a/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/fromdocs/OpenJDKAndHashMapExamplesTest.java b/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/fromdocs/OpenJDKAndHashMapExamplesTest.java
index ed0dbcf24..19aa38517 100644
--- a/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/fromdocs/OpenJDKAndHashMapExamplesTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/fromdocs/OpenJDKAndHashMapExamplesTest.java
@@ -56,7 +56,8 @@ public class OpenJDKAndHashMapExamplesTest {
 
         ChronicleMap chm = ChronicleMapBuilder
                 .of(String.class, BondVOInterface.class)
-                .keySize(10)
+                .averageKeySize(10)
+                .entries(1000)
                 .createPersistedTo(file);
 
         BondVOInterface bondVO = chm.newValueInstance();
@@ -76,7 +77,8 @@ public class OpenJDKAndHashMapExamplesTest {
 
         ChronicleMap chmB = ChronicleMapBuilder
                 .of(String.class, BondVOInterface.class)
-                .keySize(10)
+                .averageKeySize(10)
+                .entries(1000)
                 .createPersistedTo(file);
 
         // ZERO Copy but creates a new off heap reference each time
diff --git a/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/fromdocs/StringEncodingExamplesTest.java b/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/fromdocs/StringEncodingExamplesTest.java
index d302d14f6..5686819e5 100644
--- a/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/fromdocs/StringEncodingExamplesTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/fromdocs/StringEncodingExamplesTest.java
@@ -193,7 +193,7 @@ public class StringEncodingExamplesTest {
         try (ChronicleSet chineseWordSet = ChronicleSetBuilder.of(CharSequence.class)
                 .keyMarshaller(marshaller)
                 .actualSegments(1)
-                .actualEntriesPerSegment(1000)
+                .entriesPerSegment(1000)
                 .create()) {
             chineseWordSet.add("新闻");
             chineseWordSet.add("地图");
diff --git a/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/fromdocs/pingpong_latency/PingPongCASLeft.java b/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/fromdocs/pingpong_latency/PingPongCASLeft.java
index 1b02f5a6a..88abab8dd 100644
--- a/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/fromdocs/pingpong_latency/PingPongCASLeft.java
+++ b/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/fromdocs/pingpong_latency/PingPongCASLeft.java
@@ -92,6 +92,6 @@ public class PingPongCASLeft {
         AffinitySupport.setThreadId();
         return ChronicleMapBuilder.of(String.class, BondVOInterface.class)
                 .entries(16)
-                .keySize("369604101".length()).create();
+                .averageKeySize("369604101".length()).create();
     }
 }
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/jsr166/map/ChronicleMapTest.java b/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/jsr166/map/ChronicleMapTest.java
index 3e4ef6fdb..cb64bcbf6 100644
--- a/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/jsr166/map/ChronicleMapTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/jsr166/map/ChronicleMapTest.java
@@ -41,6 +41,7 @@ public class ChronicleMapTest extends JSR166TestCase {
 
     static ChronicleMap newShmIntString(int size) throws IOException {
         return ChronicleMapBuilder.of(Integer.class, CharSequence.class)
+                .averageValueSize(1)
                 .entries(size).create();
     }
 
diff --git a/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/jsr166/map/StatelessChronicleMapTest.java b/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/jsr166/map/StatelessChronicleMapTest.java
index 95c6589b0..097c38e75 100755
--- a/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/jsr166/map/StatelessChronicleMapTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/jsr166/map/StatelessChronicleMapTest.java
@@ -234,6 +234,7 @@ public class StatelessChronicleMapTest extends JSR166TestCase {
 
         final ChronicleMap serverMap =
                 ChronicleMapBuilder.of(Integer.class, String.class)
+                        .averageValueSize(1)
                         .entries(SIZE)
                         .replication((byte) 1, TcpTransportAndNetworkConfig.of(port))
                         .create();
diff --git a/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/utility/ProcessInstanceLimiter.java b/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/utility/ProcessInstanceLimiter.java
index 3a861300d..ed4974317 100644
--- a/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/utility/ProcessInstanceLimiter.java
+++ b/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/map/utility/ProcessInstanceLimiter.java
@@ -137,7 +137,7 @@ public class ProcessInstanceLimiter implements Runnable {
         ChronicleMapBuilder builder =
                 ChronicleMapBuilder.of(String.class, Data.class);
         builder.entries(1000);
-        builder.keySize((DEFAULT_PROCESS_NAME + "#").length());
+        builder.averageKeySize((DEFAULT_PROCESS_NAME + "#").length());
         this.theSharedMap = builder.createPersistedTo(new File(sharedMapPath));
         Thread t = new Thread(this, "ProcessInstanceLimiter updater");
         t.setDaemon(true);
diff --git a/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/set/Issue3Test.java b/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/set/Issue3Test.java
index b9df5a0e7..dd6f518b2 100644
--- a/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/set/Issue3Test.java
+++ b/src/test/java/net/openhft/chronicle/set/Issue3Test.java
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ public class Issue3Test {
     public void test() throws IOException {
         try (ChronicleSet set = ChronicleSetBuilder.of(Long.class)
                 .actualSegments(1)
-                .actualEntriesPerSegment(1000)
+                .entriesPerSegment(1000)
                 .create()) {
             Random r = new Random();
             for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) {