Memory Management

&
Data Storage

Deepanjal Shrestha
Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics
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 Memory and data storage
• There are many file formats used to store
data, be this text, images or sound, in
computer systems.
• All computer systems have primary
memory and secondary memory storage.
• The main technologies used are magnetic,
optical and solid state

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 File formats
• A number of different file formats are used
in computer systems.
– Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI)
– MP3
– MP4
– jpeg
– text and number format.

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 Musical Instrument Digital Interface

• It is a technical standard that describes a

communications protocol, digital interface,
and electrical connectors
• It interconnects a wide variety of electronic
musical instruments, computers, and
related music and audio devices
• It is essentially a communication protocol
that allows electronic musical instruments
to interact with each other.

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Musical Instrument Digital Interface
• Each MIDI command has a specific
sequence of bytes.
• The first byte is the status byte – this
informs the MIDI device what function to
perform.
• Encoded in the status byte is the MIDI
channel.
• MIDI operates on 16 different channels,
which are numbered 0 to 15.
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 Examples of MIDI commands
• These are
– note on/off: this indicates that a key (on an
electronic keyboard) has been
– pressed/released to produce/stop producing a
musical note
– key pressure: this indicates how hard the key
has been pressed (this could indicate
– loudness of the music note or whether any
vibrato has been used, and so on).

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 MIDI
• Two additional bytes are required, a
PITCH BYTE, which tells the MIDI device
which note to play,
• VELOCITY BYTE, which tells the device
how loud to play the note.
• Both the electronic instruments and the
computer need a MIDI interface to allow
them to ‘talk’ to each other.

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 MIDI
• MIDI operates on 16 channels.
• In fact the computer can send data out on
all 16 MIDI channels at the same time.
• For example, 16 MIDI devices, each set
up for a different MIDI channel, could be
connected to the computer
• MIDI files don’t contain any audio tracks,
their size, compared with an MP3 file, is
considerably smaller.
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Video of MIDI

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 MPEG-3 (MP3)
• MPEG-3 (MP3) uses technology known as
AUDIO COMPRESSION to convert music
and other sounds into an MP3 file format.
• Essentially, this compression technology
will reduce the size of a normal music file
by about 90 per cent.
• For example, an 80 megabyte music CD
can be reduced to 8 megabytes using
MP3 technology

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 MPEG-3 (MP3)
• Using file compression algorithms 90 per cent of
the file size can be compressed.
• This is done which use PERCEPTUAL MUSIC
SHAPING removing sounds that the human ear
can’t hear properly
• MP3 files use what is known as a LOSSY
FORMAT
• The quality of MP3 files can be different since it
depends on the BIT RATE.
• The higher the BIT rate the better the quality, i.e
more than 200 or higher gives sound close to CD
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 MPEG-4 (MP4)

• Music, videos, photos and animation can

all be stored in the MP4 format.
• Videos, for example, could be streamed
over the internet using the MP4 format
without losing any real discernable quality.

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 Activity
• A CD is being used to store music. Each
minute’s worth of recording takes up 12
megabytes.
• The CD contains nine tracks which are the
following length (in minutes): 3, 5, 6, 4, 5,
2, 7, 8, 8. How much memory would these
nine tracks occupy on the CD?

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 Activity
• If the CD was downloaded to a computer
and then all the tracks were put through an
MP3 compression algorithm, how much
memory would the nine tracks now occupy
(you may assume a 90 per cent file
reduction size)?
• Find the average size of each of the MP3
tracks, and then estimate how many MP3
files could be stored on an 800 megabyte
CD.
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 Joint Photographic Experts Group

• The resolution of the photographs is reduced from A to E.

• Photographs A and B are very sharp whilst photograph D
is very fuzzy and E is almost unrecognizable.
• This is the result of changing the number of PIXELS per
centimeter used to store the image (that is, reducing the
PICTURE RESOLUTION)

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 Joint Photographic Experts Group
• One of the file formats used to reduce
photographic file sizes is known as JPEG.
• This is another example of lossy file
compression.
• Jpeg will reduce the RAW BITMAP image
by a factor of between 5 and 15 depending
on the quality of the original.

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 JPEG
• An image that is 2048 pixels wide and
1536 pixels high is equal to 2048 × 1536
pixels; in other words, 3 145 728 pixels.
• This is often referred to as a 3-megapixel
image (although it is obviously slightly
larger).
• The file size of this image is determined by
the number of pixels.

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 JPEG
• In the previous example, a 3-megapixel image
would be 3 megapixels × 3 colours.
• In other words, 9 megabytes (each pixel occupies
3 bytes because it is made up of the three main
colours: red, green and blue).
• TIFF and BMP are the highest image quality
because, unlike jpeg, they are not in a
compressed format.
• The same image stored in jpeg format would
probably occupy between 0.6 megabytes and 1.8
megabytes.
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Resolution and Megapixel

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Calculation of Bytes

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 Activity
• An image is 1200 pixels by 1600
pixels. Calculate:
– the total number of pixels in the original
image
– the number of bytes occupied by this file
taking 3 bytes for 3 color
– the file size of the jpeg image (in
kilobytes) if the original image was
reduced by a factor of 8.
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 Answer to Activity
– the total number of pixels in the original
image ( 1200 x 1600 = 1920000 pixels)
– the number of bytes occupied by this file
2 megapixel x 3 byte = 6 Megabyte
6 MB = 6 x 1024 x 1024 bytes
– the file size of the jpeg image (in
kilobytes) if the original image was
reduced by a factor of 8
6 x 1024 / 8 = 768 Kilobytes
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 Activity
• A second image is 3072 pixels by 2304
pixels. Calculate:
– the total number of pixels in the original image
– the number of bytes occupied by this file (X)
– the file size of the jpeg image (in megabytes)
if the original image was reduced by a factor
of 5.
– How many uncompressed files of the size
calculated in part (X) could be stored on a 4-
Gigabyte memory card?
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 Answers
• The total number of pixels in the original
image 3072 x 2304 pixels
– =7077888 pixels
• The number of bytes occupied by this file
– 7 Megapixel x 3 colour byte = 21 MB
– 21 x 1024 x 1024 = 22020096 bytes
• The file size of the jpeg image (in megabytes)
if the original image was reduced by a factor
of 5.
• 21/5 = 4.2 MB
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 Answers
• How many uncompressed files of the size
calculated in part (X) could be stored on a
4-Gigabyte memory card?
– File size = 21 MB
= 21/1024 = 0.0205 GB
– For 4 GB memory card
4 / 0.0205 = 195.12 uncompressed files

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 Activity
• Calculate pixels for
– 2048 x 2048
– 1,920 x 1536
• Calcuate the size for both in taking color
depth as 8 bit
– Bytes
– Kilobyte
– Megabyte

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 Text and number file formats
• Text and numbers can be stored in a
number of formats. Text is usually stored in
an ASCII format
• When using spreadsheets or databases,
numbers can be stored different formats:
– real, e.g. 2.71678
– integer, e.g. 3
– date, e.g. 12/08/2016
– time, e.g. 19:45:50
– currency, e.g. R$ 15.50

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LOSSLESS FILE COMPRESSION

• With, Lossless file compression all the

data bits from the original file are
reconstructed when the file is again
uncompressed.
• This is particularly important for files
where loss of any data would be
disastrous – for example, a spreadsheet
file.

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 LOSSY FILE COMPRESSION
• Lossy file compression is very different to
lossless file compression.
• With this technique, the file compression
algorithm eliminates unnecessary bits of data
as seen in MP3 and jpeg formats.
• It is impossible to get the original file back
once it is compressed.
• This is why it is chosen for files where
removing certain bits doesn’t detract from the
quality.
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Memory

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 ROM Application
• ROM
– stores the factory settings such as remote
control frequencies
– stores the ‘start-up’ routines when the toy car
is first switched on
– stores the set routines; for example, how the
buttons on the hand-held device
– control turning left, acceleration, stopping, and
so on.

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 RAM Application
• 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

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 Activity
• Describe how ROM and RAM chips could
be used in the following devices:
– a microwave oven
– a refrigerator
– a remote-controlled model aeroplane; the
movement of the aeroplane is controlled by a
hand-held device.

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 Solid-state Drives (SSD)
• Latency is an issue in HDDs as described
earlier.
• SOLID-STATE DRIVES (SSD) remove
this issue considerably.
• They have no moving parts and all data is
retrieved at the same rate.
• They don’t rely on magnetic properties

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 Solid-state Drives (SSD)
• The most common type of solid-state
storage devices store data by controlling
the movement of electrons within NAND
chips.
• The data is stored as 0s and 1s in millions
of tiny transistors within the chip.
• This effectively produces a non-volatile
rewritable memory.

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 Solid-state Drives (SSD)
• Solid-state storage devices sometimes use
ELECTRONICALLY ERASABLE
PROGRAMMABLE READ-ONLY MEMORY
(EEPROM) technology.
• The main difference is the use of NOR
chips rather than NAND.
• This makes them faster in operation but
devices using EEPROM are considerably
more expensive than those that use NAND
technology.
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Benefits of using SSD rather than HDD

• they are more reliable (no moving parts to

go wrong)
• they are considerably lighter (which makes
them suitable for laptops)
• they don’t have to ‘get up to speed’ before
they work properly
• they have a lower power consumption

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Benefits of using SSD rather than HDD

• they run much cooler than HDDs

• these last two points again make them
very suitable for laptop computers
because they have no moving parts
• they are very thin data access is
considerably faster than HDD.

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 CDS and DVDS
• Are described as OPTICAL STORAGE
DEVICES.
– Laser light is used to read data and to write
data in the surface of the disk.
– Both CDs and DVDs use a thin layer of metal
alloy or light-sensitive organic dye to store the
data.
– The data is stored in ‘pits’ and ‘bumps’ on the
spiral track.
– A red laser is used to read and write the data.
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 DVDS
• DVD technology is slightly different to that
used in CDs.
• One of the main differences is the use of
DUAL-LAYERING which considerably
increases the storage capacity.
• Basically, this means that there are two
individual recording layers.

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 DVDS
• 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.

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 DVDS

Standard, single layer DVDs still have a larger storage

capacity than CDs because the ‘pit’ size and track width
are both smaller.

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 The future of optical media
• In recent times both the CD and DVD are showing
signs of becoming obsolete
• Many people now store all their music in the following
ways:
– • on hard disk drive systems
– • in MP3 format on:
– • a computer/tablet
– • their mobile phone
– • a portable music player (such as iPod®)
– • using the ‘cloud’
– • by ‘streaming’

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 How to estimate the size of a file
• Estimating the size of a text file is relatively
straightforward.
• Each character from the keyboard has a value
of 1 byte.
• Suppose we typed in the following message:
• This is text from the computer science text
book
• If we count the number of characters in the
text typed in, we get the number 48.

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Size of a file

Page 45
Calculating Size of Photo

Page 46
Size of Photo

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 Size of File
• The photograph was 424 by 256 pixels
which confirms the file size of 325 632
bytes (318 kilobytes).

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 Activity
• Estimate the size of a file for each of the
following:
– Text file containing 256 characters.
– Word processor document containing 1000
characters and a small image which is 256 ×
256 pixels in size (assume an extra 14KB for
other document features).

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 Answers
• Text file containing 256 characters = 256
bytes (I byte for each character)
• Word processor contains1000 characters = 1000
bytes
• Image size is 256 × 256 pixels = 65536 x 3
=196608 bytes
• An extra 14KB
• Total = 1000+196608+(14x1024) =
211944 bytes

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 Activity
• A security system contains a password
(16 characters long), a username (20
characters long), a small photo (256 × 640
pixels in size) and a security question (up
to 72 characters long).
• Estimate the file size needed to store all
this data.

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Thank You
Questions?

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