从Oracle 9i开始，SHARED POOL可以分为多个SUB POOL，其数量受以下几个因素影响：
系统CPU的数量。默认情况下，在Oracle中每4个CPU分配一个SUB POOL，最多不能超过7个。
共享池的大小。SUB POOL的最小容量随着Oracle版本的不同而不同
隐含参数_kghdsidx_count值。
当数据库启动时，Oracle优先根据_kghdsidx_count隐含参数值设置SUBPOOL数量。通过DUMP HEAP可以观察SUBPOOL的数量，以下为Oracle 9i的4个SUB POOL：

[ora9208@mcdbatest udump]$ grep "sga heap" ora9208_ora_13150.trc
HEAP DUMP heap name="sga heap"  desc=0x5000002c
HEAP DUMP heap name="sga heap(1,0)"  desc=0x5001ec7c
HEAP DUMP heap name="sga heap(2,0)"  desc=0x50023974
HEAP DUMP heap name="sga heap(3,0)"  desc=0x5002866c
HEAP DUMP heap name="sga heap(4,0)"  desc=0x5002d364

从Oracle 10g开始，每个SUB POOL由4个SUB PARTITION组成，如下所示：

[ora11203@mcdbatest trace]$ grep "sga heap" ora11203_ora_13056.trc
HEAP DUMP heap name="sga heap"  desc=0x200010b4
HEAP DUMP heap name="sga heap(1,0)"  desc=0x2002c534
HEAP DUMP heap name="sga heap(1,1)"  desc=0x2002d16c
HEAP DUMP heap name="sga heap(1,2)"  desc=0x2002dda4
HEAP DUMP heap name="sga heap(1,3)"  desc=0x2002e9dc
HEAP DUMP heap name="sga heap(2,0)"  desc=0x20031a5c
HEAP DUMP heap name="sga heap(2,1)"  desc=0x20032694
HEAP DUMP heap name="sga heap(2,2)"  desc=0x200332cc
HEAP DUMP heap name="sga heap(2,3)"  desc=0x20033f04
HEAP DUMP heap name="sga heap(3,0)"  desc=0x20036f84
HEAP DUMP heap name="sga heap(3,1)"  desc=0x20037bbc
HEAP DUMP heap name="sga heap(3,2)"  desc=0x200387f4
HEAP DUMP heap name="sga heap(3,3)"  desc=0x2003942c
HEAP DUMP heap name="sga heap(4,0)"  desc=0x2003c4ac
HEAP DUMP heap name="sga heap(4,1)"  desc=0x2003d0e4
HEAP DUMP heap name="sga heap(4,2)"  desc=0x2003dd1c
HEAP DUMP heap name="sga heap(4,3)"  desc=0x2003e954

SUB PARTITION的出现跟SHARED POOL DURATION的特性有关，其特性由隐含参数_enable_shared_pool_durations决定，默认为TRUE，即启用SHARED POOL DURATION特性。当_enable_shared_pool_durations被设置为FALSE时，SUB PARTITION在SUB POOL中消失。在Oracle 10g中，如果设置SGA_TARGET为0，或者在Oracle 10.2.0.5之前的版本中把cursor_space_for_time设置为TRUE时，_enable_shared_pool_durations自动被设置为FALSE。
每个SUB POOL拥有独立的FREE LIST、LRU LIST和SHARED POOL LATCH。从这个角度来讲，当系统有足够的内存和CPU时，将SHARED POOL分为多个SUB POOL，能有效地减少SHARED POOL LATCH的争用。可以通过以下查询查看SHARED POOL LATCH的争用情况：

SQL> select addr,name,gets,misses,spin_gets2  from v$latch_children      3  where name='shared pool';
ADDR             NAME                            GETS  MISSES SPIN_GETS
---------------- -------------------- --------------- ------- ---------
00000000600F5AE0 shared pool                 70074401   26223     22238
00000000600F5B80 shared pool                107519850   45111     37757
00000000600F5C20 shared pool                 58965575   20992     17791
00000000600F5CC0 shared pool                 58675278   19808     16896
00000000600F5D60 shared pool                 62756019   23706     20197
00000000600F5E00 shared pool                 61585261   21257     18019
00000000600F5EA0 shared pool                 84487594   29571     252337 rows selected.

可以通过查询X$KSMSS（[K]ernal [S]torage [M]emory Management [S]GA [S]tatistics (lengths) of SGA objects）内部视图获得每个SUBPOOL所分配的内存，如下所示：

SQL> SELECT  'shared pool('||NVL (DECODE (TO_CHAR (ksmdsidx),'0','0-Unused',ksmdsidx),'Total')||'):'subpool,2           SUM (ksmsslen) BYTES, ROUND (SUM (ksmsslen)/1048576,2) mb3  FROM x$ksmss WHERE ksmsslen > 04  GROUP BY ROLLUP (ksmdsidx) ORDER BY subpool ASC5  /SUBPOOL                   BYTES         MB
-------------------- ---------- ----------
shared pool(1):       353587048     337.21
shared pool(2):       335554440     320.01
shared pool(3):       318773800     304.01
shared pool(4):       318773640     304.01
shared pool(5):       318773328     304.01
shared pool(6):       335549952     320.01
shared pool(7):       318773552     304.01
shared pool(Total):  2299785760    2193.258 rows selected.

另外，还可通过查询X$KSMSS观察各个子池的剩余内存。可以看到各个子池剩余内存约在25MB~42MB之间，但这些剩余内存可能是零散的碎片，如下所示：

SQL> SELECT   subpool, NAME, SUM (BYTES), ROUND (SUM (BYTES) / 1048576, 2) mb2      FROM (SELECT    'shared pool (' || DECODE (TO_CHAR (ksmdsidx), '0', '0 - Unused', ksmdsidx)3            || '):' subpool, ksmssnam NAME, ksmsslen BYTES4              FROM x$ksmss WHERE ksmsslen > 0 5              AND LOWER (ksmssnam) LIKE LOWER ('%free memory%'))6  GROUP BY subpool, NAME ORDER BY subpool ASC, SUM (BYTES) DESC;SUBPOOL              NAME            SUM(BYTES)         MB
-------------------- --------------- ---------- ----------
shared pool (1):     free memory       36938752      35.23
shared pool (2):     free memory       44230408      42.18
shared pool (3):     free memory       42153816       40.2
shared pool (4):     free memory       43584456      41.57
shared pool (5):     free memory       27036848      25.78
shared pool (6):     free memory       39586080      37.75
shared pool (7):     free memory       37918416      36.167 rows selected.

值得注意的是，如果Oracle进程在某个SUB POOL中请求内存失败，可能仍然会继续在同一个SUB POOL中请求，所以过小的SUB POOL容量非常容易导致内存碎片，进而产生ORA-04031错误。虽然从Oracle 10g开始，Oracle改进了相关算法，允许进程请求内存时可在不同SUB POOL中切换，提高了请求成功的可能性，但需要说明的是，请求切换不是一个无止境操作，而且请求切换也需要额外的管理成本，降低了内存获取的效率。
随着硬件技术的快速发展，再加上Oracle已经意识到过小的SUB POOL容量带来的问题，因此，从Oracle 10.2.0.3开始，SUB POOL的最小容量变为了512MB。所以我们并不能因为出现LATCH:SHARED POOL争用而随意增大_kghdsidx_count隐含参数。相反，在频繁发生ORA-04031的系统中可能更需要适当减少SUB POOL的个数。过多的SUB POOL可能会额外增加Oracle在各SUB POOL之间的协调成本。通过查询X$KGHLU（[K]ernel [G]eneric memory [H]eap manager State of [L]R[U] of unpinned recreatable chunks）内部视图可以观察各SUBPOOL发生ORA-04031的情况：

SQL> column indx heading "indx|indx num"
SQL> column kghlurcr heading "RECURRENT|CHUNKS"
SQL> column kghlutrn heading "TRANSIENT|CHUNKS"
SQL> column kghlufsh heading "FLUSHED|CHUNKS"
SQL> column kghluops heading "PINS AND|RELEASES"
SQL> column kghlunfu heading "ORA-4031|ERRORS"
SQL> column kghlunfs heading "LAST ERROR|SIZE"
SQL> select2  indx,3  kghlurcr,4  kghlutrn,5  kghlufsh,6  kghluops,7  kghlunfu,8  kghlunfs9  from10  sys.x$kghlu11  where12  inst_id = userenv('Instance');indx  RECURRENT  TRANSIENT    FLUSHED   PINS AND   ORA-4031 LAST ERRORindx num     CHUNKS     CHUNKS     CHUNKS   RELEASES     ERRORS       SIZE
---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ----------0      21079      23947  199844842 1726517983        273       41121      32759      34703  181014058 1232596323        282       40802      33038      34934  182120171 1704173952        167       40803      27987      28540  182331413 2102763044        920       41124      37328      40418  201238783 2205809326         74       41605      30853      35079  202960194 2649732105        379       40806      27690      34344  200629415 2009369183         15       41927 rows selected.