Sleepimage and swap files on Intel Macs - separate partition, fragmentation, and why necessary?, HFS+ generally

[Jim Witte]

   About the about 1GB of compressed sleepImage and swapFile (and  
other) files that are left in var/vm/ when an Intel mac (at least a  
MacBook) is put to sleep:  why are they necessary (is there something  
about how the Intel chip/Intel bus goes to sleep that makes it  
impossible to just "keep the memory system powered", and just store  
the registers somewhere (being naive here I know..), as I think  
happened with PPC - it didn't write out 1GB files I don't think..

   Secondly, could that directory (/var/vm) be sym-linked or hard- 
linked to a separate partition of say 3-5GB to avoid fragmentation  
(or IS there a frag problem, as I assume the file is almost always  
the same size, and the O just overwrites the old one each time..  Or  
if HFS+ simply doesn't *have* frag problems..  I'm told it doesn't,  
or it essentially *always* does as it shifts pieces of files around  
as they are used more or less - I'm definitely not an expert on  
FS's.  Personally I find it hard to believe somehow that there would  
be *no* benefit from simply wiping the disk, reinstalling the OS from  
scratch, then reinstalling most used apps and constant data  files  
first.  But, with prebinding going on whenever a new app is  
installed, that "defragged" state might be impossible to maintain.

Jim