SECONDARY MEMORY

Hard Disks, Floppy disks, RAID, CD, DVD

P. MUNYANGA
Computer Systems Organization
 Magnetic Disks

• A portion of a disk track. Two sectors are illustrated.

• A magnetic disk consists of one or more aluminum platters with a
magnetizable coating.
• Platters are typically 3 to 9 cm,
 Read/write head
• A disk head containing an induction coil floats just over the surface, resting on
a cushion of air
• Writing
 When a positive or negative current passes through the head, it magnetizes the surface just
beneath the head, aligning the magnetic particles facing left or facing right, depending on
the polarity of the drive current
• Reading
 When the head passes over a magnetized area, a positive or negative current is induced in
the head, making it possible to read back the previously stored bits.
• Thus as the platter rotates under the head, a stream of bits can be written and
later read back
 Track

• A radial spaced circle on a platter for storing data.

• The disk read/write head remains at a fixed radial distance while reading or writing a track.
• Typically 5,000 to 10,000 tracks per centimeter on a platter or 1-2 micron track widths (1 micron =
1/1000 mm).
• OR 200-nanometer range (1 nanometer = 1/1,000,000,000 m)
 Sector

• A fixed bit-length section of a track.

• There are multiple sectors in a track.
• A typical sector contains: a preamble, 512 Bytes or 4096 bits, and error correction code bits.
• Between sectors on a track are inter-sector gaps.
• “linear” bit densities of 50,000 to 100,000 bits/cm have been achieved
 Cylinder

• When multiple platters exist in a hard disk, multiple tracks from different
platters can be accessed simultaneously at the same radial distance. This
makes up a cylinder.
• Note: at different radial distances, the cylinder/track may have more sectors.
• Zones with set number of sectors can be (are typically) defined
 Zones
• Based on the radial distance of the cylinder from
the center to the outer edge of the platters, there
can be a different number of sectors per track.
• A disk with five zones. Each zone has many
tracks.
• Original “stored data” constant rpm; therefore,
bits on inner rings were more dense than bits on
outer rings. (fixed pie-slices for each sector).
• With variable rpm, the “bit density” can be made
consistent, but then different radial “Zones” end
up having different numbers of sectors.
• The hard disk controller must know this!
 Reading and Writing a Disk
Seek Time:
• First the head must be position on the right track (radial distance).
• Typical numbers: 5-15 msec.
• “Avg. seek time”: not best case, not worst case, average!
• Min. time – one track to the next
• Max. time – outer track to inner track or vice versa
 Reading and Writing a Disk
Rotational Latency:
• The head must arrive at the correct sector on a track (rotational distance)
• Disks have fixed rotation rates, such as: 3,600, 5,400, 7200, or 10,800 RPM
• RPM in revolutions per minute
Reading and Writing a Disk
 Reading and Writing a Disk
Access Time:
• = Seek Time + Rotational Time
• typically defined as an average – avg. seek time + avg. rotational latency
Example:
• A drive with 8.9 msec avg. seek time at 7200 RPM
• (Western Digital WD800JBRTL drive)
• Access Time = 8.9 msec + 4.17 msec = 13.07 msec
 Reading and Writing a Disk
Transfer Time:
• Actual time to transfer a sector … read the bits
• Typically from 2 to 150 MB/sec “bursts”
• (ATA/100, ATA/150 interfaces with cache buffers)

• Western Digital WD800JBRTL buffer to disk max.: 525 Mbits/sec using an 8

MB cache
 Maximum Possible Single Sector Read Rates
• Maximum Possible Single Sector Read Rates (not realistic) – multiply by
cylinder heads.
• Example: If there are 16 or 64 sectors on a track and the rotation rate is 7200
RPM, what is the maximum possible data transfer rate to read one sector on the
disk.

• 7200 RPM  8.33 msec/rev

• For 16 sectors  8.33/16 = 0.52 msec/sector
• 4096 bits/sector  4096/0.00052 = 7,876,923 bits/sec ~ 0.98 MB/sec.

• 7200 RPM  8.33 msec/rev

• For 64 sectors  8.33/64 = 0.13 msec/sector
• 4096 bits/sector  4096/0.00013 = 31,507,692 bits/sec ~ 3.94 MB/sec.
 Maximum Possible Data Transfer Rate
• Example: If there are 128 sectors on a track and the rotation rate is 10800 RPM,
what is the maximum possible data transfer rate to read the disk.
• 10800 RPM  5.56 msec/rev
• 128 sectors  5.56/128 = 0.0434 msec/sector
• 4096 bits/sector  4096/0.0000434 = 94,371,840 bits/sec ~ 11.8 MB/sec.
• NOTE: This is a maximum burst rate. Don’t forget the access time to get to
the data!
• Note: to support (or even get close to) ATA rates of 100-150 MB/sec and quoted
Western Digital rate,
• multiple tracks in a cylinder must be read simultaneously!
• Multiply the rates defined by the number of surfaces simultaneously read, and
higher rates can be achieved!
 Average Access Time plus Transfer Time
Example:
• Find Time to read one sector given: 10,800 RPM, 8.0 msec avg. seek time
and 64 sectors per track.

• Avg. Access Time = 8.0 msec + (5.56/2 msec) = 10.78 msec

• Transfer time = 5.56 msec/rev / 64 sectors/rev = 0.0869 msec
• Total Time = 10.78 msec + 0.0869 msec = 10.8669 msec

• If this is the average data transfer rate we have.

• 4096 bits/10.8669 msec = 376.924 bits/sec or 46.01 kB/sec … not very fast
for “random sectors”
 Average Access Time plus Transfer Time
Example:
• Fortunately, we usually read multiple sectors at a time (64).
• Avg. Access Time = 8.0 msec + (2.78 msec) = 10.78 msec
• Transfer time = 5.56 msec/rev / all sectors/rev = 5.56 msec
• Total Time = 10.78 msec + 5.56 msec = 16.34 msec
• 64 x 4096 bits/16.34 msec = 16,043,084 bits/sec or 2.005 MB/sec … much better

• Note the maximum burst transfer rate for 64 sector 10,800 RPM would be
• 10,800 RPM 5.56 msec/rev
• 64 sectors 5.56/64 = 0.0869 msec/sector
• 4096 bits/sector 4096/0.0000869 = 47,148,201 bits/sec ~ 5.893 MB/sec.
 Speeding Up The Transfers:
Disk Controllers:
• Digital logic that provides the standard interface to the processor.
• Typically includes FIFO memory space for rapid burst transfers.
• May (must) allow simultaneous access to the multiple tracks in a
cylinder.
• (Multiply the burst transfer rate by the number of cylinder read/write
heads)
• Performs the ECC generation, testing, and corrections
• Keep track of zones
• Can provide a mapping table of good and bad sectors.
• Transfer data blocks as pages into main memory (1 kB to 64 kB pages)
 Floppy Drives
• They use the same general concept as a magnetic hard disk, but they are smaller
and slower.
• Two sizes discussed, 5.25” and 3.5” but those currently used are exclusively HD
3.5”.
 Floppy Drives
• The maximum burst transfer rate for 1 sector at 300 RPM would be
• 300 RPM 200 msec/rev
• 18 sectors 200/18 = 11.11 msec/sector
• 4096 bits/sector 4096/0.01111 = 368,640 bits/sec ~ 45.00 kB/sec.
• For 2 heads, this could double to 737,280 bits/sec ~ 90.00 kB/sec

• Assume an average seek times of approximately 94 msec

• The average transfer rate for 18 sectors (one track) at 300 RPM would be
• Avg. Access Time = 94 msec + (100 msec) = 194 msec
• Transfer time = 200 msec/rev / all sectors/rev = 200 msec
• Total Time = 194 msec + 200 msec = 394 msec
• 18 x 4096 bits/394 msec = 187,126.9 bits/sec or 22.84 kB/sec
• For 2 heads, this could double to 45.68 kB/sec
 Accessing Drive and Peripherals
• The formats in the PC arena
• IDE and the more advanced Extended/Enhanced IDE (EIDE)
• EIDE evolved into to Parallel ATA and then Serial ATA
• SCSI
 BIOS – Basic Input Output System
• ROM based programming code to perform Input and Output.
• BIOS initially controlled the disk controller card operations.
• The operating system read from and wrote to a disk by putting
parameters in CPU registers and then calling the BIOS, located in the
PC’s built-in read-only memory.
• The BIOS issued the machine instructions to load the disk controller
registers that initiated transfers.
• The technology evolved rapidly from having the controller on a
separate board, to having it closely integrated with the drives, starting
with IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) drives in the mid 1980s
 IDE – Integrated Device Electronics
• BIOS calling conventions (maintained for backward compatibility)
• Addressing for head, cylinder, and sector
• Heads a 4-bit field numbered starting from 0 (0-15)
• Cylinders a 10-bit field numbered starting from 0 (0-1023)
• Sectors a 6-bit field numbered starting from 1 (1-63)
• Original BIOS maximum drive size:
• 16 heads * 63 sectors * 1024 cylinders = 1,032,192 sectors
• 512 Bytes/sector 528,482,304 Bytes or 528 MB
• seemed like alot at the time
• Disk drives began to remap the “virtual addressing: into the actual
addressing/geometry
 EIDE – Extended Integrated Device Electronics
• Supports a second addressing scheme called Logical Block Addressing
(LBA)
• Sectors are numbered using a 24-bit integer and are number from 0 to 224-1.
• Drive size:
• 224 sectors * 512 Bytes/sectors = 223 kB = 213 MB
• 213 MB 8 GB …
• Typical PC has two EIDE interfaces that each handle two devices …
• Guess what! Further extensions exist!
• [Link]
• [Link]
 ATA Drives
• ATA: Short for Advanced Technology Attachment, a disk drive implementation
that integrates the controller on the disk drive itself. There are several versions of
ATA, all developed by the Small Form Factor (SFF) Committee:
• ATA: Known also as IDE, supports one or two hard drives, a 16-bit interface and
PIO modes 0,1 and 2.
• ATA-2: Supports faster PIO modes (3 and 4) and multiword DMA modes (1 and
2). Also supports logical block addressing (LBA) and block transfers. ATA-2 is
marketed as Fast ATA and Enhanced IDE (EIDE).
 ATA Drives
• ATA-3: Minor revision to ATA-2.
• Ultra-ATA: Also called Ultra-DMA, ATA-33, and DMA-33, supports multiword
DMA mode 3
• running at 33 MBps.
• ATA/66: A version of ATA proposed by Quantum Corporation, and supported by
Intel, that doubles ATA's throughput to 66 MBps.
• ATA/100: An updated version of ATA/66 that increases data transfer rates to 100
MBps.
 Parallel-ATA and Serial-ATA
• To get faster transfers at low commodity price costs.
• High data throughput parallel cables become expensive: paired grounds, require
shielding.
• Wider cables with more bits take up lots of connector space and are increasingly
hard to “package” in a product (folding or bending to get from point A to B).
• At ATAPI-7 there was a break to serial data transfers and parallel and Serial-ATA
was born.
• [Link]
• From [Link]
 SATA
• “SATA is an evolutionary replacement for the Parallel ATA physical storage
interface.
• SATA is scalable and allows for enhancements to the computing platform.
• These include easier integration, faster performance, and more efficient design.”
• “How will the industry benefit from adopting SATA?”
• “Adoption of the Serial ATA specification provides low-cost storage for the industry, improved
speed and bandwidth, and serves as an evolutionary replacement for the Parallel ATA
interface.
• Implementation of Serial ATA allows for easy integration due to improved cabling, greater
flexibility in regard to system configuration and hot plugability.
• With these enhancements, system builders can create new solutions with fewer limitations and
will experience greater interoperability with other interfaces.”
 SATA
• SATA defines a roadmap starting at 1.5 gigabits per second (equivalent to a data rate of
150MB/s) and migrating to 3.0 gigabits per second (300 MB/s), evolving to today’s 6.0 gigabits
per second transfer rate, and then to even higher data rates.
• With its widespread usage in the computing industry, the SATA bus architecture will continue to
evolve and mature over time.
• New technologies and techniques in performance, power management, physical configuration,
connection options and other storage-centric solutions are constantly being defined and developed,
giving SATA a long and promising future.”
• SATA is the internal hard disk interface you will find in current PC.
• Older PC may still use parallel ports. (Look inside the case before buying a drive … it is easy to
tell the difference.)
 SCSI – Small Computer System Interface
• Similar organization in terms of cylinders, tracks, and sectors
• SCSI buses use a different interface with higher data transfer rates.
 SCSI – Small Computer System Interface
• SCSI ID:
• 0-7 originally
• 0-15 for wide SCSI
• Cables/Connectors
• 50 wire parallel cable
• 25 signal lines, 25 ground lines (signal pairs)
• Std. Signal Lines
• 8-bit data
• 1-bit parity
• 9-bit control
• 7-bit power, misc, spare
• Arbitrated bus activity, allows all the devices to run at once, potentially greatly improving
performance. IDE and EIDE allow only one active device at a time.
• Typically applications would be in servers.
 RAID - Redundant Array of Inexpensive/Independent Disks
• Use a box full of hard disks to allow:
• Higher data transfer and storage rates (operate disks in parallel),
• Higher degrees of redundancy (save on multiple disks simultaneously), and
• Higher degree of error detection and correction (Additional ECC)
• Multiple “Levels” of RAID have been defined to perform these tasks.
• RAID typical operates by writing k sector strips to disks as shown in a process
called Striping.
• In their 1988 paper, Patterson et al. suggested six specific disk organizations that
could be used to improve disk performance, reliability, or both
 RAID level 0
• disk simulated by the RAID as being divided up into strips of k sectors each, with
sectors 0 to k − 1 being strip 0, sectors k to 2k − 1 as strip 1, and so on
• For k = 1, each strip is a sector; for k = 2 a strip is two sectors, etc
• writes consecutive strips over the drives in round-robin fashion
• Distributing data over multiple drives like this is called striping
 RAID level 0: parallel I/O
• If the software issues a command to read a data block consisting of four
consecutive strips starting at a strip boundary, the RAID controller will break this
command up into four separate commands, one for each of the four disks, and
have them operate in parallel.
• Thus we have parallel I/O without the software knowing about it
• Performance is excellent with this parallelism
• Because of no redundancy in RAID level 0, it is not really a true RAID.
 RAID levels 0 through 2
• Backup and parity drives are shown shaded
 RAID level 1
• It duplicates all the disks, so there are four primary disks and four backup disks in
this example, although any other even number of disks is also possible.
• On a write, every strip is written twice.
• On a read, either copy can be used, distributing the load over more drives.
• Consequently, write performance is no better than for a single drive, but read
performance can be up to twice as good.
• Fault tolerance is excellent: if a drive crashes, the copy is simply used instead.
• Recovery consists of simply installing a new drive and copying the entire backup
drive to it
 RAID level 2
• RAID level 2 works on a word basis, possibly even a byte basis
• each byte is split into a pair of 4-bit nibbles then a Hamming code is added to each
one to form a 7-bit word, of which bits 1, 2, and 4 are parity bits
• the seven drives are synchronized in terms of arm position and rotational position.
• Thus it is possible to write the 7-bit Hamming coded word over the seven drives,
one bit per drive.
• The Thinking Machines CM-2 computer used this scheme, taking 32-bit data
words and adding 6 parity bits to form a 38-bit Hamming word, plus an extra bit
for word parity, and spread each word over 39 disk drives.
 RAID level 2
Advantages:
• The total throughput is immense, because in one sector time its possible to write 32
sectors worth of data
• Losing one drive does not cause problems, because loss of a drive amounted to losing 1
bit in each 39-bit word read, something the Hamming code could handle on the fly
Disadvantages:
• scheme requires all the drives to be rotationally synchronized
• it makes sense only with a substantial number of drives (even with 32 data drives and 6
parity drives, the overhead is 19 percent)
• It also asks a lot of the controller, since it must do a Hamming checksum every bit time.
 RAID level 3
• is a simplified version of RAID level 2.
• a single parity bit is computed for each data word and written to a parity drive. As
in RAID level 2, the drives must be exactly synchronized, since individual data
words are spread over multiple drives.
• a single parity bit provides full 1-bit error correction since the position of the bad
bit is known
• Although both RAID levels 2 and 3 offer very high data rates, the number of
separate I/O requests per second they can handle is no better than for a single
drive.
 RAID level 4
• work with strips again, not individual words with parity, and do not require
synchronized drives
• RAID level 4 is like RAID level 0, with a strip-for-strip parity written onto an
extra drive
• If a drive crashes, the lost bytes can be recomputed from the parity drive
• This design protects against the loss of a drive but performs poorly for small
updates.
• If one sector is changed, all the drives must be read in order to recalculate the
parity, which then must be rewritten.
• As a consequence of the heavy load on the parity drive, it may become a
bottleneck.
 RAID level 5
• work with strips again, not individual words with parity, and do not require
synchronized drives
• Eliminates RAID level 4 bottleneck on the parity drive by distributing the parity
bits uniformly over all the drives, round robin fashion
• However, in the event of a drive crash, reconstructing the contents of the failed
drive is a complex process
 Solid-State Disks
• Disks made from nonvolatile flash memory,
• Flash disks are made of many solid-state
flash memory cells..
• The flash memory cells are made from a
single special flash transistor.
• Embedded inside the transistor is a floating
gate that can be charged and discharged
using high voltages
Flash Drives
 Writing To Flash
• To program the flash bit cell, a high voltage (in the computer world 12 V is ahigh
voltage) is applied to the control gate, which accelerates the process of hot carrier
injection into the floating gate.
• Electrons become embedded into the floating gate, which places a negative charge
internal to the flash transistor.
 Reading From Flash
• The embedded negative charge increases the voltage necessary to turn on the flash
transistor, and by testing whether or not the channel turns on with a high or low
voltage, it is possible to determine whether the floating gate is charged or not,
resulting in a 0 or 1 value for the flash cell.
• The embedded charge remains in the transistor, even if power is removed from the
system, making the flash memory cell nonvolatile
 SSDs
Advantages:
• they have superior performance to spinning disks and have zero seek time.
• While a typical magnetic disk can access data up to 100 MB/sec, an SSD can
operate two to three times faster
• has no moving parts, it is particularly suited for use in notebook computers
Disadvantages:
• typical SSD will cost one to three dollars/gigabyte While magnetic disks cost
pennies/gigabyte
• Higher failure rate. flash cell can be written only about 100,000 times. wear
leveling is used to spread writes out to all flash cells in the disk
 Multilevel Flash Cells
• are able to encode multiple bits per cell by using multilevel flash cells
• The technology carefully controls the amount of charge placed into the floating
gate.
• An increasing sequence of voltages is then applied to the control gate to determine
how much charge is stored in the floating gate.
• Typical multilevel cells will support four charge levels, yielding two bits per flash
cell
 CD-ROMS - Compact Disks
• ([Link]
• Optical disks were first invented and marketed by Philips for recording and
playing movies and television programs.
• The original format never took off … Then, Philips in cooperation with Sony
developed the Compact Disk (CD) in 1980.
• Technical details, the specifications, were published
• Red Book - CD Audio (IS 10149)
• Yellow Book - CD-ROM, CD-ROM/XA
• Green Book - Compact Disc Interactive
• Orange Book - Recordable Compact Disc. Includes Multi-session Discs e.g.
Photo CD
 Writing
• Spiral Groove
• Write information as one continuous spiral (like a vinyl
long-play record)
• Pits and Lands
• Data is encoded as the transitions or lack of transitions.
• Bit=1 Transitions from pit to land OR transitions from
land to pit
• Bit=0 No transition of the data.
 Physical Specifications:
• CD: 120 mm across, 1.2 mm thick, 15 mm hole
• Track spacing: 1.6 micrometer (um) (higher capacity 1.5 um)
• Track Width: 0.5 um
• Minimum pit size: 0.83 um
• Pit Depth: 125 nanometer (nm)
• 1x Spiral Rate: 120 cm/sec
• Note:
• the CD rotation rate varies to sustain a stable linear read rate at the head! 1x
Read Rate:
• Inside spiral, nominal 530 RPM
• Outside spiral, nominal 200 RPM
 Audio Format Storage Requirement:
• 74 min. Audio:
• 44,100 samples/channel/second x 2 bytes/sample x 2 channels x 74 minutes x
60 seconds/minute = 783,216,000 bytes
• 80 min. Audio:
• 44,100 samples/channel/second x 2 bytes/sample x 2 channels x 80 minutes x
60 seconds/minute = 846,720,000 bytes
 Logical data layout on a CD-ROM
• Data Layout on CD
• The basic format of a CD-ROM consists of encoding every byte in a 14-bit
symbol. 14 bits is enough to Hamming encode an 8-bit byte with 2 bits left over.
• Symbol: 14 bits: 8 data bits, 6 ECC
• Frame: 42 symbols: 24 data symbols, 18 ECC and control
• Sector: 98 frames: producing 2352 Data Bytes
 The Yellow Book Defines Two Modes
• Digital Data Byte Structure (Mode 1)
• Preamble 16 Bytes
• Data 2048 Byte
• ECC 288 Bytes
• Audio Data Byte Structure (Mode 2)
• Preamble 16 Bytes
• Data 2336 Byte
• Note:
• Three distinct error detection and correction schemes
• Data Symbols, Frame, and Sector
• Significant Overhead for error detection and correction
 Audio vs Data
• Directly Comparing Audio to Data
• 74 min. Audio 783,216,000 bytes or Digital Data 686,655,111 bytes
• 80 min. Audio 846,720,000 bytes or Digital Data 742,329,850 bytes
 Operating Rates – 1x speed
• 75 sectors per second
• Mode 1: (2048 data bytes, Digital Data)
• 75 x 2048 = 153,600 Bytes/sec = 150 kBytes/sec
• Equivalent time of 74 minutes of audio = 4,440 sec
• Total Data: 681,984,000 Bytes = 666,000 kBytes ~ 650 MB
• Mode 2: (2336 data bytes, Audio)
• 75 x 2336 = 175,200 Bytes/sec ~ 171 kBytes/sec
• 74 minutes of audio = 4,440 sec
• Total Data: 777,888,000 Bytes 759,656 kBytes ~ 742 MB
 Operating Rates – 52x speed
• Mode 1: (2048 data bytes, Digital Data)
• 52 x 75 x 2048 = 7,987,200 Bytes/sec 7,800 kB/sec ~ 7.6 MB/sec
• Note: a little better than a SCSI-1 !! (not very fast)
• Mode 2: (2336 data bytes, Audio)
• 52 x 75 x 2336 = 9,110,400 Bytes/sec ~ 8,897 kB/sec ~ 8.7 MB/sec
 File Systems for CD Data
• To make it possible to use the same CD-ROM on different computers, agreement was
needed on CDROM file systems.
• Computer companies got together in Lake Tahoe, CA and developed one: High Sierra – 3
levels
• Level 1
• 8 character file names (MS-DOS)
• 8-deep directory with no extensions
• files all contiguous
• directory is first on the spiral
• CD-ROMs not conforming to level 1 will not be readable on old computers
• Level 2
• 32 character file names
• Level 3 non-contiguous files
 CD-Recordable

• Cross section of a CD-R disk and laser (not to scale).

• A CD-ROM has a similar structure, except without the dye layer and with a
pitted aluminum layer instead of a reflective layer.
• Unlike CD-ROMs, which have physical depressions, on CD-Rs the
differing reflectivity of pits and lands has to be simulated
 CD-R

• The simulation is done by adding a layer of dye between the polycarbonate and the reflective layer
• Two kinds of dye are used: cyanine, which is green, and pthalocyanine, which is a yellowish
orange
• In its initial state, the dye layer is transparent and lets the laser light pass through and reflect off the
reflective layer.
 CD-R
• Writing
• the CD-R laser is turned up to high power (8–16 mW).
• When the beam hits a spot of dye, it heats up, breaking a chemical bond.
• This change to the molecular structure creates a dark spot.
• Reading
• When read back (at 0.5 mW), the photodetector sees a difference between the dark
spots where the dye has been hit and transparent areas where it is intact.
• This difference is interpreted as the difference between pits and lands, even when read back on a
regular CD-ROM reader or even on an audio CD player
• CD-R standard is called Orange Book, was published in 1989
 CD-R Incremental Writing
• Writing is done on a separate track (i.e., multitrack).
• incremental writing creates a new problem:
• Prior to the Orange Book, all CD-ROMs had a single VTOC (Volume
Table of Contents) at the start.
• The solution was to give each CD-ROM track its own VTOC.
• The files listed in the VTOC can include some or all of the files from
previous tracks, to give the illusion that files have been deleted.
• After the CDR is inserted into the drive, the operating system searches
through all the CD-ROM tracks to locate the most recent VTOC, which
gives the current status of the disk.
 CD-R Antipiracy Measures
• CD-R makes it possible to easily copy CDROMs (and audio CDs), possibly in
violation of the publisher’s copyright
• Many protection schemes rely on breaking compliance with CD and DVD
standards, leading to playback problems on some devices.
• over-sizing or over-burning the CD
• involves recording all the file lengths on the CD-ROM as multigigabyte, thwarting any
attempts to copy the files to hard disk using standard copying software.
• The true lengths are embedded in the publisher’s software or hidden
• Another scheme uses intentionally incorrect ECCs in selected sectors, in the
expectation that CD copying software will ‘‘fix’’ the errors.
 CD-Recording Issues
• Each track must be written continuously without stopping
• Hard disk must deliver data continuously
• Buffer underrun error occurs if the stream of data to the CD runs dry
• Buffer Underrun Protection
• Eliminates buffer underrun errors by pausing writing process (turning off the
laser) when buffer becomes empty
 CD-Rewritables(CD-RW)
• Instead of cyanine or pthalocyanine dye, an alloy of silver, indium, antimony and
tellurium is used
• Depending on how energy is applied, it goes into an amorphous state or into a crystalline
state
• When in an amorphous state, alloy does not reflect
• Again, simulates pits and lands
• Three power lasers used on the CD material for reading and writing:
• Low Power
• Read the media
• Medium Power
• Continuous power to “melt and recrystalize” the CD material to become a land again for
erasing.
• High Power
• Pulses to write data by converting CD material to an amorphous alloy to represent a pit.
 DVD Technology
• Digital Versatile (or previously Video) Disk
• Same general design as CDs but with
• Smaller pits (0.4 micron versus 0.8 microns for CDs)
• Tighter spiral (0.74 microns between tracks versus 1.6 microns for CDs)
• Red laser (at 0.65 microns versus 0.78 microns for CDs)
 DVD Technology
• Minimum capacity: 4.7 GiB (at least seven times capacity of most CD-
ROMs)
• 4.7 GB can accommodate
• 133 minutes of full-screen, full-motion video at high-res (720x480)
• Eight soundtracks
• 32 subtitles
• But still some applications (and movies) need more capacity!
 DVD Formats
• DVD-5: Single-sided, single-layer (4.7 GB)
• DVD-9: Single-sided, dual-layer (8.5 GB)
• DVD-10: Double-sided, single-layer (9.4 GB)
• DVD-18: Double-sided, dual-layer (17 GB)
• SS-DL supporters: Philips and Sony
• DS-SL supporters: Toshiba and Time Warner
• Compromise: All combinations will be offered, and let the market decide
which standards will survive.
• Well, the market has spoken. Philips and Sony were right. Never bet against
technology
A double-sided, dual layer DVD disk.
 DVD Video and DVD-ROM
• First DVD standards to hit the market
• DVD-ROM is essentially the same as DVD Video with support for filesystems
 DVD - Recordable
• Competing standards supported by two groups of manufacturers
• DVD+R and DVD+RW
• DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD-RAM
 DVD+R and DVD+RW
• Supported by Philips, Sony, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Ricoh, Yamaha
• DVD+R – recordable
• DVD+RW – rewritable
• Can be read in most DVD-ROM drives
 DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD-RAM
• Supported by Panasonic, Toshiba, Apple, Hitachi, NEC, Pioneer, Samsung, Sharp,
DVD Forum
• DVD-R – recordable
• DVD-RW – rewritable
• Can be read in most DVD-ROM drives
• DVD-RAM – rewritable, cannot be read by non DVD-RAM drives, housed in
special cartridge
 Blu-ray
• Blu-ray, is so called because it uses a blue laser instead of the red one used by
DVDs.
• A blue laser has a shorter wavelength than a red one, which allows it to focus
more accurately and thus support smaller pits and lands.
• Single-sided Blu-ray disks hold about 25 GB of data; double-sided ones hold
about 50 GB.
• The data rate is about 4.5 MB/sec, which is good for an optical disk, but still
insignificant compared to magnetic disks
 Magnetic Tape Systems
• Employs similar principle used in magnetic disk-recording
• Usually used for backups
• Different types
• DLT – digital linear tape
• Travan
• DAT – digital audio tape / DDS – digital data storage
• LTO – linear tape open
 Trends in Storage Technologies
• Increasing disk capacities through increased areal density
• Areal Density = Bits/Inch = Bits (Tracks/Inch) x (Bits/Track-Inch)
• 2000: 20 GB/platter
• 2001: 40 GB/platter
• 2002: 60 GB/platter
• 2003: 80 GB/platter
• Increased capacities at decreasing cost/megabyte
 The IBM Microdrive

 1 GB Capacity
 CF Form Factor
Source: [Link]