External memory

NUCSF
• Primary memory has limited storage capacity and is volatile.

• Secondary memory overcomes this limitation by providing

permanent storage of data and in bulk quantity.
 KEY POINTS

• Magnetic disks remain the most important component of external

memory.

• Both removable and fixed

• Hard disks are used in systems from personal computers to

mainframes and supercomputers.

• To achieve greater performance and higher availability, servers and

larger systems use RAID disk technology.
 KEY POINTS
• RAID: is a family of techniques for using multiple disks as a
parallel array of data storage devices, with redundancy built in to
make up for disk failure.

• Optical storage: technology has become increasingly important in

all types of computer systems.

• While CD-ROM has been widely used for many years, more recent
technologies, such as writable CD and DVD, are becoming
increasingly important.
Example of external memory
examples of secondary memory devices include:

• hard disk drives (HDDs)

• solid-state drives (SSDs)

• magnetic tapes

• optical discs such as CDs and DVDs

• flash memory such as USB drives and memory cards.

 Uses of external Media:
• Permanent Storage: Primary Memory (RAM) is volatile, i.e. it
loses all information when the electricity is turned off, so in order
to secure the data permanently in the device, Secondary storage
devices are needed.

• Portability: Storage mediums, like CDs, flash drives can be used

to transfer the data from one device to another
Types of External Memory
• Magnetic Disk
 RAID
 Removable
• Optical
 CD-ROM
 CD-Recordable (CD-R)
 CD-R/W
 DVD
• Magnetic Tape
 Magnetic Disk
• A memory device, such as a floppy disk or a hard disk, that is
covered with a magnetic coating. Digital information is stored on
magnetic disks in the form of microscopically small, magnetized
needles.

• Magnetic disks are less expensive than RAM and can store large
amounts of data, but the data access rate is slower than main memory
because of secondary memory.
Pros and cons of magnetic disk
• Advantages:-
These are economical memory
Easy and direct access to data is possible.
It can store large amounts of data.
It has a better data transfer rate than magnetic tapes.
It has less data to corruption of data as compared to tapes.
 Pros and cons of magnetic disk
Disadvantages:
These are less expensive than RAM but more expensive than
magnetic tape memories.
It needs a clean and dust-free environment to store.
These are not suitable for sequential access.
 Read and Write Mechanisms

• Recording & retrieval via conductive coil called a head

• May be single read/write head or separate ones

• During read/write, head is motionless, and platter rotates

Read and Write Mechanisms
• Write

Current through coil produces magnetic field

Magnetic pattern recorded on surface below

• Read

Magnetic field moving relative to coil produces current

Component of hard Disk
• Platters: The part of the disk that stores the data is known as
platter.

• Platters are circular disk made of a non magnetic material

typically aluminum alloy, glass or ceramic and are coated with a
thin layer (10-20nm) of a magnetic material.

• Platters are further separated in to the tracks and sectors where

tracks are concentric circles while sectors are pie shaped wedges
on the track
Magnetic disk read write
• Read/Write Heads: These are the devices that interpret or
modify the magnetic field on the platters.

• When writing data, the heads produce a magnetic field that

changes the orientation of the magnetic particles on the platters.
Magnetic disk read write
• Actuator Arm: This is the component that moves the read/write
heads across the surface of the platters.

• Spindle: This is the axis that the platters spin around. The speed
of the spin, measured in RPM (Revolutions Per Minute), is a
significant factor in the performance of the drive
• The entire disk is divided into platters.

• Each platter consists of concentric circles called as tracks.

• These tracks are further divided into sectors which are the
smallest divisions in the disk.

Minimum block size is one sector

May have more than one sector per block

• A cylinder is formed by combining the tracks at a given
radius of a disk pack
Disk Data Layout
Data Organization and Formatting
Head is used to read or write data from the platter by
rotating it.

So the organization of data on the platter is in concentric

set of rings, called tracks.
Data Organization and Formatting
Concentric rings or tracks

Gaps between tracks: gaps are there to prevent or minimize

errors due to misalignment of the head or interference of
magnetic fields.

Reduce gap to increase capacity

Same number of bits per track

Data Organization and Formatting
Constant angular velocity

In CAV mode, the spindle motor turns at a constant speed, which

makes the medium pass by the read/write head faster when the head
is positioned at the outside of the disk.
Structure of Magnetic Disk
Structure of Magnetic Disck
Structure of Magnetic Disk
• There exists a mechanical arm called as Read / Write head.
• It is used to read from and write to the disk.
• Head has to reach at a particular track and then wait for the
rotation of the platter.
• The rotation causes the required sector of the track to come
under the head.
• Each platter has 2 surfaces- top and bottom and both the surfaces
are used to store the data.
• Each surface has its own read / write head
 Physical Characteristics of Disk system
• Head Motion • Disk Portability
 Fixed head (one per track)  Non removable disk
 Movable head (one per surface)  Removable disk
• Platters
sided
 Single platter
 Single Sides
 Multiple platter
 Double side
 Fixed/Movable Head Disk
Fixed head

• A separate head for each track.

• This arrangement allows the computer to switch from

track to track quickly, but it requires a large number of
heads, which makes the device extremely expensive.
 Fixed/Movable Head Disk
Movable head

• One read write head per side

• Much more common, it moves across the disk to access

different tracks.

• It requires hardware to move the head, but only a single

head is needed, so it is less expensive.
 Removable or Not
Removable disk
 Can be removed from drive and replaced with another disk

 Provides unlimited storage capacity

 Easy data transfer between systems

Nonremovable disk
• Permanently mounted in the drive section.
Multiple Platters
• One head per side
• Heads are joined and
aligned
• Aligned tracks on each
platter form cylinders
• Data is striped by cylinder
— reduces head
movement
– —increases speed
(transfer rate)
 DISK PERFORMANCE PARAMETERS
• Seek time

– Moving head to correct track

• (Rotational) latency

– Waiting for data to rotate under head

• Access time = Seek + Latency

• Transfer rate=the time required to transfer the data, once the head
is in position.
• Seek time – The time taken by the R-W head to reach the desired track
from its current position.

• Rotational latency – Time is taken by the sector to come under the R-

W head.

• Data transfer time – Time is taken to transfer the required amount of

data. It depends upon the rotational speed.

• Controller time – The processing time taken by the controller.

• Average Access time – seek time + Average Rotational latency + data

transfer time + controller time.
 Example:
• Consider a hard disk with:

• 4 surfaces

• 64 tracks/surface

• 128 sectors/track

• 256 bytes/sector

What is the capacity of the hard disk?

Disk capacity = surfaces * tracks/surface * sectors/track * bytes/sector

Disk capacity = 4 * 64 * 128 * 256
Disk capacity = 8 MB
• The disk is rotating at 60/sec , what is the data transfer rate?
1 sec -> 60 rotations
Data transfer rate = surfaces * Rotation per second * sectors/track *
bytes/sector

Data transfer rate = 60 * 128 * 256 * 4

Data transfer rate = 7.5 MB/sec
 Magnetic Tape
• Serial access

• Slow

• Very cheap

• Store as archive

• Linear Tape-Open (LTO) Tape Drives

– Developed late 1990s

 Floppy Disk
• A floppy disk is a detachable, flexible magnetic storage device that
may hold computer files or other electronic data.

• It is composed of a flexible and thin magnetic storage disk that is

enclosed inside a rectangular plastic carrier that has a fabric lining for
increased sturdiness.

• Data can be read and written because the disk is magnetic. Writes
and reads floppy disks with a floppy disk drive.
 How Does a Floppy Disk Work?
• Data is magnetically stored on the circular platter surface of a floppy
disk.

• A read/write head within the drive reads data that has been encoded
onto the platter by moving over it.

• After that, the drive converts these bits into text, images, or music
that the computer’s CPU can understand.

• The magnetic polarity used by the read/write head is either 0 or 1.

 How Does a Floppy Disk Work?
• The computer can interpret this as binary data and determine what is on the
platter.

• The read/write head aligns the magnetic polarities so that the computer may
write data to the platter—0s and 1s that can be decoded by another device
later on
Reference
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