Deep meaning of error 3232

Hi group

I'm running an Oracle server 8174 on a Sun box with Solaris 8.

I'm getting this error
"ORA-03232: unable to allocate an extent of 35 blocks from tablespace 2"

db_block_size=8192
TS #2 is TMP (temporary locally managed ts, alloc quantum of 256 K)

First time I got that message, I ran looking at the filling rate of the TS, it was OK (filled at 40%, a few sort segments and temporary segments for temporary tables)

The client I get that error from performs the following tasks: locks rows of a single table manually with a PL/SQL cursor. insert rows in a temporary table (on commit delete) does some stuff (using hash joins AFAICT) updates/inserts rows in the single tables commits

This occurs in a single transaction and impacts 10-12 rows.

I never had that error before though the app was tested on three differents environments (but with identical init params, ts sizes and alloc strategy)

The description of error 3232 in the doc let me with an odd feeling:

ORA-03232 unable to allocate an extent of string blocks from tablespace string

Cause: An attempt was made to specify a HASH_MULTIBLOCK_IO_COUNT value that is greater than the tablespace's NEXT value.

Action: Increase the value of NEXT for the tablespace using ALTER TABLESPACE DEFAULT STORAGE or decrease the value of HASH_MULTIBLOCK_IO_COUNT. The allocation unit of my TS is 256 K and I agree this value is exceeded by 35*8192=280Ko but where does that value of 280 Ko come from ?

I can modify my ts using a quantum of 512K for uniform allocation but I'd like to know why.

Anything I missed ? An issue I'm not aware of ?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

--
Seb L.
Hope my english not so rusty ;)