Presentation

Magnetic Disk

Magnetic Disk
The primary computer storage device
It consists of magnetically coated
disks
Glass is the used as the substrate.
Advantages:
o
o
o
o

Increases reliability
Reduces surface defects
More resistance to damage
Better stiffness

Read and Write

Mechanisms
For writing, the surface of the
disk or tape is moved past the
read/write head. By discharging
electrical impulses at the
appropriate times, bits are
recorded as tiny, magnetized
spots of positive or negative
polarity.
For reading, the surface is
moved past the read/write head,
and the bits that are present
induce an electrical current
across the gap.

Read (contemporary)
Most modern disk
drives use magneto
resistive sensor for
reading, but use
inductive coils for
writing.
High frequency
operation
o

Higher storage and

speed

Data Organization and

Formatting
Tracks and Spots
The disk surface is
divided into concentric
tracks (circles within
circles). The thinner
the tracks, the more
storage. The data bits
are recorded as tiny
magnetic spots on the
tracks. The smaller the
spot, the more bits per
inch and the greater
the storage.

Sectors
Tracks are further divided
into sectors, which hold a
block of data that is read
or written at one time; for
example, READ SECTOR
782, WRITE SECTOR
5448. In order to update
the disk, one or more
sectors are read into the
computer, changed and
written back to disk.

Track and Sectors

Disk Velocity
The bit located near centre of rotating disk passes
fixed point slower than the bit on the outside of the
disk
Constant angular velocity (CAV) keeps the disk
spinning at a fixed rate. This means the heads
cover more distance per unit of time on the outer
tracks than on the inner tracks.
o Individual tracks and sectors addressable
o Lower data density
Can use zones to increase capacity
o Each zone has fixed bits per track

Finding Sectors

Find start of track and sector

Format disk
o

Marks tracks and sectors

Winchester Disk Format

An early removable disk drive from IBM that put the
heads and platters (disks) in a sealed unit for
greater speed.
The drive had one permanent and one removable
spindle, each holding 30MB.

Characteristics
Fixed head
One read write head
per track
o Heads mounted on
fixed ridged arm
o

Movable head

One read write head

per side
o Mounted on a
movable arm
o

Removable disk
Can be removed
from drive and
replaced with
another disk
o Provides unlimited
storage capacity
o Easy data transfer
between systems
o

Nonremovable disk
o

Permanently
mounted in the drive

Multiple Platter
One head per side
Heads are joined and
aligned
Aligned tracks on each
platter form cylinders
Data is striped by
cylinder
o reduces head
movement
o Increases speed
(transfer rate)

Floppy Disk
A floppy disk is a data
storage medium that is
composed of a disk of
thin, flexible ("floppy")
magnetic storage
medium encased in a
square or rectangular
plastic shell.
Floppy disks in 8 inch,
5 inch and 3 inch.
Small capacity
o Up to 1.44Mbyte
(2.88M never

Speed
Seek time
o

Moving head to correct track

(Rotational) latency
o

Waiting for data to rotate under head

Access time = Seek + Latency

Transfer rate

Raid system
Drive arrays are
ways to share
resources
The most common
drive arrays are
RAID
RAID stands for
Redundant Arrays
of Inexpensive
Disks

RAID 0
Stripped Disk Array without Fault Tolerance (Nonredundant)

Does not include

redundancy to improve
performance
Increase probability that
requests of data being
issued of different blocks
could be issued on
parallel, reducing the I/O
queuing time.
RAID level 0 can be
implemented for two
situations: High Data
Transfer Capacity and
High I/O Request Rate

RAID 1
Mirroring and Duplexing (Mirrored)

Redundancy is achieved by
duplicating all the data
A read request can be
serviced by either of the two
disks. The controller reads
alternate sectors from each
drive. Time is effectively
reduced the data read time.
Write time is dictated by the
slower of the two writes
Recovery from failure is
achieved accessing the
second drive
Main disadvantage is cost.

RAID 2
Data Striping with Error Recovery
Uses multiple disks for
error- detection and
correction functions
The number of redundant
disks is proportional to the
log of the number of data
disks.
A complex error-detection
and correction algorithm is
employed.
Big hardware overhead,
thus is not normally used
with microcomputer
systems

RAID 3
Parallel Transfer with Parity Striping (Bit-interleaved parity)

Same organization as RAID 2 but

only a single redundant disk is
required, independently of the
disk array size
A redundancy is added just in
case of a disk failure so data lost
can be reconstructed using the
parity disk
Because data are striped in very
small strips, RAID 3 can achieve
very high data transfer rates
Only one I/O request can be
executed at a time. Thus, in a
transaction-oriented environment,
performance suffers
If an error occurs, the controller
reads the array again to verify the
error. This is a time-consuming
low-efficiency method of error
correction

RAID 4
Independent Data Disks with Shared Parity Disk
(Block-level parity)
Controller interleaves sectors across the drives in

the array
Independent access technique for high I/O
request rates
I/O requests satisfied in parallel
Only one parity-checking drive is allotted for error
control

Bitwise operation

XOR properties:
A xor A = 0
1 xor 1 = 0
1 xor 0 = 1
0 xor 0 = 0
Example: 1110 xor 0111 = 1001
In general, A xor B xor C xor D xor E is TRUE if an ODD
number of variables are TRUE
XOR is used in RAID 3-6 for creating parity information.
It is possible to bake up information like two bytes, 10011100
and 01101100 coming from different hard drives if we xor them
and store the result in another hard drive

Data Recovery

Suppose the following hard drives in a RAID 3-6 scheme:

X3(i) = parity drive; X2(i) = 10011100, and X1(i) = 01101100, data drives,
xored together
X3(i) = X2(i) xor X1(i)
11110000 = 10011100 xor 01101100
In the event of a failure, for example X1(i) fails, then is possible to recover
the information adding
X1(i) xor X3(i) to the equation as follows
X3(i) xor X1(i) xor X3(i) = X2(i) xor X1(i) xor X1(i) xor X3(i)
Because A xor A =0 we can eliminate X3(i) in the left member and X1(i) in
the right member, leaving the equation as:
X1(i) = X2(i) xor X3(i)
Substituting values
X1(i) = 10011100 xor 11110000
X1(i) = 01101100, so the data has been recovered.

RAID 5
Independent Data Disks with Distributed Parity
Blocks
Similar organization as RAID 4
Alters the RAID 4 specification
by allowing the parity function to
rotate through the different
drives
Error checking an correction are
the function of all the drives
The distribution of parity strips
across all drives avoids the
potential I/O bottleneck found in
RAID 4
Very popular because it can be
used on small arrays, and it has
a high level of error recovery
built in.

RAID 6
Independent Data Disks with Two Independent
Distributed Parity (Dual Redundancy)
Parity is calculated and stored in separate blocks and different
disks
Requires at least two additional drives to operate
Example: if a data user needs N disks, RAID 6 array will be N+2
disks
Relatively expensive, but it provides an extremely high fault
tolerance level for critical applications

Raid comparison

Raid comparison
(continued)

Optical Memory

CD-ROM
CD-Recordable (CD-R)
CD-R/W
DVD

Optical Storage CD-ROM

Originally used audio recording
650Mbytes giving over 70 minutes
audio
Polycarbonate coated with highly
reflective coat, usually aluminium
Data stored as pits
Read by reflecting laser
Constant packing density
Constant linear velocity

CD Operation

CD-ROM Drive Speeds

Audio is single speed
o

Constant linier velocity

Other speeds are quoted as multiples

e.g. 48x
Quoted figure is maximum drive can
achieve

CD-ROM Format

Mode 0=blank data field

Mode 1=2048 byte data+error
correction
Mode 2=2336 byte data

With the use of Constant

Linear Velocity
Random Access on CD-ROM
Difficult
Does not go to exact position desired
Read Random address is difficult

CD-ROM
FOR:
o
o
o
o

Relatively Large capacity

Easy to mass produce
Removable
Robust/Durable

AGAINST:
o
o
o

Slow
Read only (cannot be updated)
Access time is longer than Mag. Disk Drive

Other Optical Storage

Advantages
CD-Recordable (CD-R)
o
o
o

WORM (WRITE ONCE READ MULTIPLE)

Now affordable
Compatible with CD-ROM drives

CD-RW
o
o
o
o

Erasable
Getting cheaper
Mostly CD-ROM drive compatible
Phase change
Material has two different reflectivities in different
phase states

DVD
Digital Video Disk
o

Used to indicate a player for movies

Only plays video disks (however could be
used for any storage application)

Digital Versatile Disk

o

Used to indicate a computer drive

Will read computer disks and play video disks

DVD - technology
Multi-layer
Very high capacity (4.7G per layer)
Full length movie on single disk
o

Using MPEG compression

Movies carry regional coding

Magnetic Tape

Magnetic Tape

The first kind of secondary memory was invented for recording sound by Fritz
Pfleumer in 1928 in Germany.
Magnetic recording is used for audio, video, and computer data storage.
Tape systems use the same reading and recording techniques as disk systems.
Data on the tape are structured as a number of parallel tracks running length wise.
Early tape systems used nine tracks, which made it possible to store data one byte at
a time, with an additional parity bit as the ninth track.
Later tape systems used 18 or 36 tracks.
Parallel recording is recording data in digital word or double word.
Serial recording is data laid out as sequence of bits along each track.
The recording technique used in serial tapes is referred to as serpentine recording. In
this technique, when data are being recorded, the first set of bits is recorded along the
whole length of the tape. When the end of the tape is reached, the heads are
repositioned to record a new track, and the tape is again recorded on its whole length,
this time in the opposite direction.
Magnetic tape have been used in different formats such as open reels, UNIVAC, DEC,
Cartridges, IBM formats and cassettes.
Linear Tape-Open (LTO) Tape Drives
o Developed late 1990s
o Open source alternative to proprietary tape systems
As of 2008, the highest capacity tape cartridges can store 1 TB of uncompressed data.
(Sun Storage Tek T1000B & IBM TS 1130)

Advantages &
Disadvantages
Main advantages
Relatively cheap
Can hold in excess of 1 TB of data (it is possible to get devices that will back up
over 5 TB of data)
Backup capacity is easily expanded by simply using more tape.
Main disadvantages
Serial access - this means that in order to get to something on the tape, you have to
go through everything that comes before it. Think of it like a video tape. The
program that you want to watch might have been recorded half way through the tape,
but you have to wind forward right from the start to get to it.
Slow - Because of serial access, it is relatively slow to find the data that you need
(however in an exam question, don't just say 'slow', compare it to a storage device
with faster access.
Specialist hardware is needed to read the tapes. Most standard PCs do not come
with the hardware required to use them.
Not suitable for heavy use - As you may realize from video tapes at home - they
are a bit fragile with a tendency to stretch and tangle! Tape is best suited for back-up
purposes.

Linear Tape-Open (LTO) Tape

Drives
LTO-1
LTO-2
LTO-3
LTO-4
LTO-5

LTO-6

Release date

2000

2003

2005

2007

TBA

TBA

Compressed
capacity

200 GB

400 GB

800 GB

1600 GB

3.2 TB

6.4 TB

Compressed
transfer rate
(MB/s)

40

80

160

240

360

540

Linear density
(bits/mm)

4880

7398

9638

13300

Tape tracks

384

512

704

896

Tape length

609 m

609 m

680 m

820 m

Tape width (cm)

1.27

1.27

1.27

1.27

Write elements

16

16

Review Questions
Magnetic Disk:
- What are the advantages of using glass as a substrate?
-What is the differences between latency and seek time?
RAID:
- What is RAID and how many types are there?
-What is the importance of parity bit?
Optical Memory:
-Name four types of optical memory?
-With the use of Constant Linear Velocity is it easy or difficult
to access random data on CD-ROM?
Magnetic Tape:
- What are the main advantages of magnetic tape?
-What are magnetic recording used for?