DATA STORAGE

• Any memory in the RAM can be accessed

independently.
• . When you run an application or program, data is
retrieved from secondary storage and placed
temporarily into RAM. Access time to locate data is
much faster in RAM than in secondary or off-line
devices. Features of RAM include:
•
• can be written to or read from, and the data can be
changed by the user or the computer (i.e. it is a
temporary memory)
• used to store data, files, part of an application or
part of the operating system currently in use
 •
• it is volatile, which means memory contents are lost
when powering off the computer.
• The larger the size of RAM the faster the computer
will operate.
• RAM never runs out of memory; it continues to
operate but just becomes slower and slower as more
data is stored.
• As RAM becomes ‘full’, the CPU has to continually
access the secondary data storage devices to
overwrite old data on RAM with new data. By
increasing the RAM size, the number of times this
has to be done is considerably reduced; thus making
the computer operate more quickly.
• There are currently two types of RAM technology:
o dynamic RAM (DRAM) >» static RAM (SRAM).
o Dynamic RAM (DRAM)

DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory)

 • Each DRAM chip consists of transistors and
capacitors.
• Each of these parts is tiny since a single RAM chip
will contain millions of transistors and capacitors.
• capacitor - this holds the bits of information (0 or 1)
» transistor - this acts like a switch; it allows the chip
control circuitry to read the capacitor or change the
capacitor’s value.
• This type of RAM needs to be constantly refreshed
• If it wasn’t refreshed, the capacitor’s charge would
leak away very quickly leaving every capacitor with
the value 0.
Advantages of DRAM
• They are much less expensive to manufacture than
SRAM
• they consume less power than SRAM
• they have a higher memory capacity than SRAM.
Static RAM (SRAM)

• A major difference between SRAM and DRAM is that

SRAM doesn’t need to be constantly refreshed.
• It makes use of flip flops, which hold each bit of
memory.
• SRAM is much faster than DRAM when it comes to
data access (typically, access time for SRAM is 25
nanoseconds and for DRAM is 60 nanoseconds)
• In the CPU’s memory cache, SRAM is the preferred
technology. Memory cache is a high-speed portion
of the memory;
• Frequently accessed data is kept in SRAM, the
computer avoids having to access the slower DRAM.
Read-only memory (ROM)
• they are non-volatile (the contents are not lost after
powering off the computer)
• » they are permanent memories (the contents
cannot be changed or written to by the user, the
computer or any application/program)
• » the contents can only be read
• » they are often used to store data that the
computer needs to access when powering up for the
first time (the basic input/output system (BIOS));
 these are known as the start-up instructions (or
bootstrap)

Application

A remote-controlled toy car has circuitry which contains

both RAM and ROM chips. The remote control is a hand-
held device. Explain the function of the RAM and ROM
chip in this application.
ROM
• storing the factory settings such as remote control
frequencies
• storing the ‘start-up’ routines when the toy car is
first switched on
 • storing of the set routines; for example, how the
buttons on the hand-held device control turning left,
acceleration, stopping, and so on

RAM
• the user may wish to program in their own routines;
these new instructions would be stored in the RAM
chip
• the RAM chip will store the data/instructions
received from the remote control unit.
Secondary and off-line storage

• Secondary (and off-line) storage includes storage

devices that are not directly addressable by the CPU.
• They are non-volatile devices that allow data to be
stored as long as required by the user.
• This type of storage can store more data than
primary memory, but data access time is
considerably longer than with RAM or ROM.
 • All applications, the operating system, device drivers
and general files (for example, documents, photos
and music) are stored on secondary storage.
Magnetic, optical and solid-state storage
• Secondary (and off-line) storage falls into three
categories according to the technology used:
• Magnetic
• solid state
• Optical.

Magnetic storage

• Hard Disk Drives (HDD) Hard disk drives (HDD) are still one
of the most common methods used to store data on a
computer.
• Data is stored in a digital format on the magnetic surfaces
of the disks(or platters, as they are frequently called).these
are made up of aluminum ,glass or a ceramic material.
• The HDD have platters that can spin 7000 times a second
• Read-Write head consists of electromagnet which can
perform operations like read or write.
• All data in a given sector on a HDD will be read in order
(that is, sequentially);
 • Read-write heads can move very fast i.e from the center
to the edge of the disk 50 times in a second.
• Surface is divided into tracks and sectors
• Data is stored on the surface in sectors and tracks
• Each sector will contain fixed number of bytes
• The data access is slower compared to RAM as the the
large number of head movement is done at the time of
read /write data.
• Latency is the more significant. Latency is time taken for a
specific block of data on a track to rotate around to
read/write data.
• This effect can be seen by user like”not responding” or
“please wait”
Fragmentation-
When a file is fragmented, it is stored on the storage medium in non-
contiguous blocks, which means that the blocks are not stored next
to each other

A file is too large to fit into a single contiguous block of free space on
the storage medium, or when the blocks of free space on the
medium are insufficient to hold the file. Because the system must
search for and retrieve individual fragments from different locations
in order to open the file, fragmentation can cause problems when
reading or accessing the file.

Affects the System?

• Slower Performance
• Disk Space Wasting
• Data Loss
• Increased Risk of System Crashes
Defragmentation -
In this process, all scattered fragments (data) rearrange in such that
they come in sequence form with further utility program available.

In this process program first, check percentage of the fragment

available in disk then Defragment all disk as can as possible.
reorganizes the fragments of a file and allocates contiguous disk
space to store the file.
This helps to improve the read and write speed of the disk, reducing
access time and increasing the overall speed of the system.
By regularly defragmenting the disk, the performance of the
operating system can be improved and maintained, ensuring a
smooth and efficient user experience.

SOLID STATE DRIVE(SSD)

• Latency is an issue in HDDs, Solid state drives (SSD) remove
this issue considerably since they have no moving parts and all
data is retrieved at the same rate.
• SSD store data by controlling the movement of electrons
withing NOR and NAND gates
• Data is stored in 1’s and 0’s in tiny transistors within the
chip(at each juncture one transistor is called floating gate and
other is called control gate)
• Floating gate and control gate transistors use CMOS
(complementary metal oxide semi-conductor) NAND
technology. Flash memories make use of a matrix; at each
intersection on the matrix there is a floating gate and a control
gate arranged as

• A dielectric coating separates the two transistors, which allows

the floating gate transistor to retain its charge (which is why the
memory is non-volatile).
• Floating gate transistor has value 1 When it is charged and 0 when
it is not.
• To program one of these ‘intersection cells’ a voltage is applied to
the control gate and electrons from the electron source are
attracted to it.
• But due to the dielectric coating, the electrons become trapped in
the floating gate.
• Hence, we have control over the bit value stored at each
intersection.
benefits of this newer solid state technology over hard disk drives
 • They are more reliable
• They are lighter
• They consume less power
• They run cooler than HDD
• Data access is much faster than HDD
It is also not possible to over-write existing data on a flash memory
device; it is necessary to first erase the old data and then write the new
data at the same location.
Memory sticks/flash memories
• use solid state technology.
• Conncected through the USB port
• Can be used as small back-up devices for music or photo files,
Optical media
• CD/DVD disks CDs and DVDs are described as optical storage
devices.
• Laser light is used to read and write data to and from the surface
of the disk.
 • They use thin layer of metallic alloy or light-sensitive organic
dye to store data
• When disk spins the head moves from enter of disk to the
outer edge; both uses spiral track
• The laser meets to the point where the laser beam contacts the
disk surface
• CD/DVD is divided into sectors allowing direct access to data.
• The data is stored in ‘pits’ and ‘lands’ on the spiral track.
• A red laser is used to read and write the data.
• CDs and DVDs can be designated ‘R’ (write once only) or ‘RW’
(can be written to or read from many times).

DVD
• DVD technology is slightly different to that used in CDs. One of the
main differences is the potential for dual-layering,
• there are two individual recording layers.
• Two layers of a standard DVD are joined together with a
transparent (polycarbonate) spacer, and a very thin reflector is
also sandwiched between the two layers.
• Reading and writing of the second layer is done by a red laser
focusing at a fraction of a millimetre difference compared to the
first layer.
 • DVDs use lasers with a wavelength of 650 nanometres;
• CDs use lasers with a wavelength of 780 nanometres.
• The shorter the wavelength of the laser light, the greater the
storage capacity of the medium.

BLU RAY

Blu-ray discs
Blu-ray discs are another example of optical storage media. However,
they are fundamentally different to DVDs in their construction and in
the way they carry out read-write operations.
The main differences between DVD and Blu-ray are:

• a blue laser, rather than a red laser, is used to carry out read and
write ~ operations; the wavelength of blue light is only 405
nanometres (compared to á 650nm for red light)
• using blue laser light means that the ‘pits’ and ‘lands’ can be much
smaller; Blu-ray can store up to five times more data than normal
DVD
• single-layer Blu-ray discs use a 1.2mm thick polycarbonate disk;
• Blu-ray disks automatically come with a secure encryption system
that helps to prevent piracy and copyright infringement
• the data transfer rate for a DVD is 10Mbps and for a Blu-ray disc it
is 36 Mbps (this equates to 1.5 hours to transfer 25 GiB of data).