Lecture #3

MEMORY TYPES & SOFTWARE TYPES

Presented By

DHIVIYA ROSE J
Assistant Professor – Senior Scale
CIT | CoES | UPES
Data and Information
Data Information

• Data is the raw material • Information is processed

that is to be processed data.
• It is unorganized data or • The data that can be
facts that are to be made useful is known as
processed. information.
• Data is useless unless it is • It cannot be generated
processed or has been without the help of data.
made into something. • Information is processed
Data comes in figures, and comes in a
dates and numbers and is meaningful form.
not processed.
Describing Storage Devices
• Store data when computer is off
• Two processes
▫ Writing data
▫ Reading data

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 Types Of
Memory

Primary Secondary Tertiary

Memory Memory Memory

Removable
RAM Hard Disk
Harddisk

ROM CD’s

Cache
DVD.s
Memory
Memory
Types
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Memory Hierarchy
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Types of RAM & ROM

• RAM (Random access memory):

▫ SRAM (Static RAM) (flip-flop gates)
▫ DRAM (Dynamic RAM)
• ROM (Read only memory)
▫ PROM (programmable)
▫ EPROM (erasable programmable)
▫ EEPROM (electronically erasable programmable)

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Memory Technology Types
• Magnetic Storage Device

• Optical Storage Device

• Solid Storage Device

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Magnetic Storage Devices
• Most common form of storage
• Hard drives, floppy drives, tape
• All magnetic drives work the same

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Magnetic Storage Devices

Floppy Disk

Hard Disk

Tape
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Magnetic Storage – Working

• Data storage and retrieval
▫ covered with iron oxide
▫ Read/write head is a magnet
▫ Magnet writes charges on the media
 Positive charge is a 1
 Negative charge is a 0
▫ Magnet reads charges
▫ Drive converts charges into binary

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Magnetic Storage Devices
• Data organization
▫ Format draws tracks on the disk
▫ Tracks is divided into sectors
 Amount of data a drive can read

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Hard Disk

▫ Primary storage device in a computer

▫ 2 or more aluminum platters
▫ Each platter has 2 sides
▫ Spin between 5,400 to 15,000 RPM
▫ Data found in 9.5 ms or less
▫ Drive capacity greater than 40 GB

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Illustrated Hard Disk
Tape Drives
▫ Best used for
 Infrequently accessed data
 Back-up solutions
▫ Slow sequential access
▫ Capacity exceeds 200 GB

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Optical Storage Devices
• CD-ROM
▫ Most software ships on a CD
▫ Read using a laser
 Lands, binary 1, reflect data
 Pits scatter data
▫ Written from the inside out
▫ CD speed is based on the original
 Original CD read 150 Kbps
 A 10 X will read 1,500 Kbps
▫ Standard CD holds 650 MB
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Optical Storage Devices
• DVD-ROM
▫ Digital Video Disk
▫ Use both sides of the disk
▫ Capacities can reach 18 GB
▫ DVD players can read CDs

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Solid State Devices
• Flash memory
▫ Found in cameras and USB drives
▫ Combination of RAM and ROM
▫ Long term updateable storage

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Cache Memory
 A CPU cache is a cache used by the central processing unit of a
computer to reduce the average time to access memory. The cache is
a smaller, faster memory which stores copies of the data from the
most frequently used main memory locations. As long as most
memory accesses are cached memory locations, the average latency
of memory accesses will be closer to the cache latency than to the
latency of main memory.
 When the processor needs to read from or write to a location in
main memory, it first checks whether a copy of that data is in the
cache. If so, the processor immediately reads from or writes to the
cache, which is much faster than reading from or writing to main
memory

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Virtual Memory
It is a computer system technique which
gives an application program the impression
that it has contiguous working memory (an
address space), while in fact it may be
physically fragmented and may even overflow
on to disk storage.

Computer operating systems generally use

virtual memory techniques for ordinary
applications, such as word processors,
spreadsheets,multimedia,players accounting,
etc., except where the required hardware
support (memory management unit) is
unavailable or insufficient.
Types of Software

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System Software:
System Software includes the Operating System and all
the utilities that enable the computer to function.

System software is a term referring to any computer

software which manages and controls the hardware so
that application software can perform a task.

Example:
Operating Systems, Compiler, Loader, Linker,
Interpreter.

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Open Source Software:

• Open source software (OSS) is computer software

whose source code is available under a license that
permits users to use, change, and improve the software,
and to redistribute it in modified or unmodified form.

• It is often developed in a public, collaborative manner.

Well-known OSS products are Linux, Netscape, Apache,
etc.,

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Proprietary Software:
• Proprietary software (also called non-free
software) is software with restrictions on using,
copying and modifying as enforced by the proprietor.
Restrictions on use, modification and copying is
achieved by either legal or technical means and
sometimes both.

• Proponents of proprietary software are Microsoft.

• Ex: CAD, Nortan Antivirus etc.,

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Application Software

1. Spreadsheets: The spreadsheet packages are

designed to use numbers and formulas to do calculations
with ease. Examples of spreadsheets include:
▫ Budgets
▫ Payrolls
▫ Grade Calculations
▫ Address Lists
The most commonly used spreadsheet programs are
Microsoft Excel and Lotus 123.

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2. Graphic Presentations: The
presentation programs can be easier using overhead
projectors. Other uses include:
▫ Slide Shows
▫ Repeating Computer Presentations on a
computer monitor
▫ Using Sound and animation in slide shows

The most recognized graphic presentation programs are

Microsoft PowerPoint and Harvard Graphics.

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3. Word Processors
• Common features
▫ Word Wrap, formatting
▫ Spelling/Grammar Checkers
▫ Thesaurus
▫ Search and Replace
• Multimedia object
▫ Graphs, tables
▫ Audio, video clips

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4. Browsers
• Connect to the Web
• Open and transfer files
• Display text and images
• Web site address
▫ How a browser locates a web page
▫ Uniform Resource Locator (URL)

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 5. Database Management System (DBMS):
• A DBMS is a software tool that allows multiple users to
store, access, and process data into useful information.
• Database programs are designed for these types of
applications:
▫ Membership lists
▫ Student lists
▫ Grade reports
▫ Instructor schedules
All of these have to be maintained so you can find what
you need quickly and accurately.

• Example:Microsoft Access, dBASE, Oracle.

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