Alyssa L.

Del Valle
BSIE 1-1

1. What are the two most popular personal computer platforms? How do they differ?

- The two most popular personal computer platforms are Macintosh and IBM Personal
Computer. Macintosh, or now called "the Mac", was the first widely-sold personal computer
with a graphical user interface (GUI) and a mouse. It was designed to provide users with a
natural, intuitively understandable, and, in general, "user-friendly" computer interface. It was
introduced by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak of Apple Inc. On the other hand, IBM Personal
Computer was one of the fastest desktop computers of its time. It was a very small machine that
could not only process information faster than those ponderous mainframes of the 1960s but
also hook up to the home TV set, process text and store more words than a huge cookbook.
The two personal computer platforms differ in:
 Design. There are countless designs available on the market of IBM PC. If you don’t like
the design from one manufacturer you can simply look to others. With Macintosh, if
you’re not keen on their design, you’re out of luck.
 Specifications. With Macintosh, you have generally limited customization options,
while IBM PC usually allow for a much wider range whilst supporting different kinds of
hardware.
 Software. Macintosh lack software for its operating system than IBM PC.

2. Describe various types of memory.

-RAM (Random Access Memory) can access any random bit of data just as quickly as any other
bit, but it is very expensive compared to all types of secondary memory in terms of cost per
gigabyte. ROM (Read Only Memory) can read data from the computer memory but, data
cannot normally be written to it. It is a type of non-volatile memory, which means that the data
stored in ROM persists in the memory even when it receives no power.

3. Describe the various secondary storage devices in terms of access methods,

- ACCESS METHOD
 Flash drive. Flash drives provide an efficient method to transfer, store and access files.
To successfully access a flash drive, all that is needed is an available USB port on your
computer.
 Hard disk. Direct Access is required if transaction processing is taking place. When a
serial access medium is being used, the head that reads data from the storage medium
has limited freedom of movement.
 Tape Drive. Tape drives can be connected to a computer with SCSI, Fibre Channel,
SATA, USB, FireWire, FICON, or other interfaces. Tape drives are used with
autoloaders and tape libraries which automatically load, unload, and store multiple tapes,
increasing the volume of data which can be stored without manual intervention.
 - CAPACITY
 Flash drive. Now come in capacities ranging between 8 gigabytes (GB) and 1 terabyte
(TB), depending on manufacturer, and future capacity levels are expected to reach 2 TB.
 Hard disk. Specified in unit prefixes corresponding to powers of 1000: a 1-terabyte
(TB) drive has a capacity of 1,000 gigabytes (GB; where 1 gigabyte = 1 billion bytes).
 Tape Drive. Has less than one megabyte were first used for data storage on mainframe
computers in the 1950s. As of 2014, capacities of 10 terabytes or higher of
uncompressed data per cartridge were available.

- PORTABILITY
 Flash drive. Very portable flash drive meant for easy data storage or transfer, and
which connects to a computer via a USB port. USB flash drives are so small that most of
them are designed to easily attach to a key ring.
 Hard disk. Portable as it comes in various pocket-sized or larger cases, but it is larger
than a DVD or USB memory stick.
 Tape Drive. Still the only medium on which you can reliably store data and move it
offsite for disaster recovery purposes

4. What are the benefits of using a hybrid drive rather than a traditional hard disk
drive?

- As a hybrid hard drive contains a certain amount of solid state storage, it must be able to work
much faster than a mechanical drive. It will store all your computer system and program files in
the solid state storage so that you can get access to these files at solid-state speed. Generally, a
hybrid hard drive performs faster than the traditional hard disk drive that there is no cached file
saved in its solid-state memory. Over time, with more and more cached files saved, it will work
more and more quickly.

5. What are the factors that determine the appropriate system output and input
devices?

 Features. Make sure you select one that fits your needs and lifestyle.
 Compatibility. Check the system requirements of the devices to ensure they work
with your computer.
 Cost. Make sure you or your organization can afford the input device.

6. Discuss the speed and functionality of common input and output devices.

- Getting data into the computer system is a two-stage process. First, human-readable data is
converted into machine-readable form through a process called data entry. Secondly, the
machine-readable data must be transferred into the system, a process known as data input.
Regardless of how data gets into the computer however, it should be captured and edited at its
source, a concept known as source data automation.
Because efficient processing and timely output is very important to most organizations, a variety
of measures are used to gauge processing speed. These measures include the time it takes to
complete a machine cycle and clock speed.