MAKERERE UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATION

SCIENCES

SCHOOL OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATICS

TECHNOLOGY

P.O BOX 7062, KAMPALA, UGANDA

BACHELOR OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND

TECHNOLOGY
(BIST-EVE YEAR 1)

ASSIGNMENT ONE

COMPUTER LITERACY
(CSC 1109)
LECTURER: Mrs. GRACE KOBUSINGE

BY: LARRY EKINI

22/U/3300/EVE
Computer Storage devices

Abstract: Any sort of computational hardware that is utilized for storing,

transferring, or extracting data files and objects is referred to as a
storage device. Information can be held and stored in storage devices
both momentarily and permanently. They can be found both within and
outside of a computer, server, or computing device.

Depending on whether it is considered discrete in nature, a storage

device may also be referred to as a storage medium or storage media.

Keywords: storage devices

Types of Computer Storage Devices

1. Optical Storage Devices

Optical storage devices use light to accomplish all read and write
operations. All the recording data is saved on an optical disk. According
to data scientists, compact space is best for storing large amounts of
data. Their main advantages are that they are less expensive, lighter,
and easier to move than hard drives because they are removable
devices.

There are different types of devices, which are used as optical storage.

 Blu-ray disc
 CD-ROM disc
 CD-R and CD-RW disc.
 DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, and DVD+RW disc.
 2. Magnetic Storage Devices

All data is kept in magnetic storage devices utilizing a magnetized

medium, and these forms of data are preserved in binary form in that
media as 0 and 1. Non-volatile storage is also a feature of this magnetic
storage.

There are different types of devices, which are used as Magnetic

Storage.

 Floppy diskette                                                          
 Hard drive
 Magnetic strip
 Super Disk

3. Flash Memory Devices

Flash memory is also known as electronically erasable programmable

read-only memory because it allows for the writing and erasing of code
such as programming. Computers and electronic gadgets such as USB
flash drives, MP3 players, digital cameras, and solid-state drives employ
flash memory to store data. Because all data is saved in the memory
when the power is turned off, flash memory is non-volatile.

There are different types of devices, which are used as flash memory.

 USB flash drive, jump drive, or thumb drive.

 Memory card
 D card
 SSD
 4. Online Cloud System

Clouding is a method of storing data in a computer that is organized

logically. Other hosting businesses are in charge of those clouding
systems. All data can be accessed by a couple of people at any time
and from any location thanks to online clouding. The lack of a physical
limitation as well as the absence of the need to transport any storage
devices are significant advantages.

Examples

 Cloud Storage
 Network media

Most used Storage Devices

I. Hard Disk

Almost every desktop and laptop computer contain a hard disk drive
(also known as a hard drive, HD, or HDD). It holds operating system and
software program files, as well as user documents like as images, text
files, videos, and audio. The hard drive records and retrieves digital data
to and from one or more fast-spinning disks using magnetic storage.

II. Tapes

Because of its low cost and capacity to store vast amounts of data,
magnetic tape was once widely utilized for digital data storage. A thin,
magnetically coated sheet of plastic was wrapped around the wheels to
create the technology. Because of its slowness and instability in
comparison to other data storage options, it has mostly been abandoned
as a storage medium.
III. Compact Discs (CDs)

The compact disc (or CD for short) is a type of optical storage device
that reads and writes data using lasers and lights. Compact discs were
originally only used for music, but by the late 1980s, they were also
being utilized for computer data storage. CD-ROMs (read-only compact
discs) were first introduced but were soon followed by CD-Rs (writable
compact discs) and CD-RWs (rewritable compact discs) (rewritable
compact discs).

IV. Secure Digital Cards.

SD cards are widely utilized in a variety of electronic devices, such as

digital cameras and cellphones. Despite the fact that they come in a
variety of sizes, classes, and capacities, they all have a rectangular form
with one side "chipped off" to prevent the card from being loaded
incorrectly into a camera or computer.

Characteristics of Computer Storage Devices

Volatility: Volatile Memory: To keep the information saved, it requires
constant electricity. Memory technologies that are as quick as possible.
If the system's power is switched off or stopped, all the contents are
deleted. Temporary memory is the most common name for it.
Non-Volatile Memory: Even if it is not regularly supplied with electric
power, it will keep the stored information. Nonvolatile memory is a type
of memory that retains data even after the power is turned off, making it
ideal for long-term data storage.
Accessibility: Random Access, this property is highly suited for primary
and secondary storage since any position in storage may be reached at
any time in roughly the same amount of time.
Sequential Access: Because pieces of information will be accessed in a
sequential manner, one after the other, the time it takes to access one
piece of information will rely on the time it took to access the last piece of
information. This is a typical feature of off-line storage.
Mutability: Allows the overwriting of data at any moment. For many
tasks, a computer without some read/write storage for primary storage
needs would be useless.
Addressability: Location-addressable: The numerical memory address
is used to pick each individually accessible unit of information in storage.
File Addressable: Information is separated into files of varying lengths,
with human-readable directory and file names used to select a specific
file.

Content addressable: Each individually accessible unit of information is

chosen depending on (part of) the information stored there. Software or
hardware can be used to achieve content-addressable storage, with
hardware being the faster but more expensive alternative. A computer's
CPU cache frequently uses hardware content addressed memory .

Differences between supercomputers and

Mainframe computers

Abstract: Both of these are the most powerful types of computers

developed to date. There is a fundamental difference between
Supercomputer and Mainframe Computer based on their size,
performance, operations, and many more. In this article, we will discuss
the same. But let us first understand a bit about both of these as well.
Both types of computers perform different tasks. Supercomputers
basically focus on faster computing for the mathematical operations that
might be complex in nature. The mainframe computer, on the other
hand, acts like a server. It offers multiprogramming, many I/O devices,
and provides support for large DB (databases).

Keywords: Supercomputers, Mainframe

Introduction
What is a Supercomputer: These types of computers are the largest
when it comes to computer sizes. Thus, they are the most expensive
ones in the market. Seymour Cray basically invented the supercomputer.
These assist in various complex and large computations of mathematics.
As compared to the mainframe computers, their speed is also pretty
high. It means that a supercomputer can feasibly perform the execution
of billions of instructions in just a second (or floating-point instructions).

What is a Mainframe Computer: These types of computers are also

pretty advanced, but they are comparatively smaller in size than the
Supercomputers. Also, the mainframe computers are slower in speed
and help in storing large amounts of databases in them. These
computers are pretty economic and serve basic purposes effectively.
IBM invented the first-ever mainframe computer. It performs a
simultaneous execution of millions of instructions together, and yet, it
offers a slower speed than the supercomputers. Still, these are pretty
fast.

The main differences between Supercomputers and Mainframe

computers can be explained in various categories as discussed
below;
Basics and implementation: The primary function of a
supercomputer is to perform various large computations of mathematics
that might be complex in nature, while that of a Mainframe computer is
its ability to store large amounts of databases in its storage.

Invention: The notion of a supercomputer first arose in the 1960s

by an Electrical Engineer Seymour, embarked on creating the world’s
fastest computer hence considered “father of Supercomputing (Tuan C.
2021) whereas the first Mainframe was developed in the 1930’s by
Howard Aiken, who was a Harvard researcher. He proposed the idea of
a large-scale calculator that could solve a set of non-linear equations. He
presented the idea to IBM, which was tasked to figure out how to create
this computer which was finally completed in 1943 (Clarke, 2020).

Speed: In 1964, Cray introduced the CDC 6600, which featured

innovations of using germanium transistors in favor of silicon and a
Freon-based cooling system (Tuan C. 2021). More importantly, this
computer ran at a speed of 40MHz, executing roughly three million
floating-point operation per second. Where as a Mainframe computer
can perform simultaneous execution of millions of instructions at the
same time. Today the International Business Machine (IBM) Enterprise
system, announced in 2010, is the latest generation of Mainframe
technology with 5.2GHz processors and 96 cores on a single machine
(Grega, 2019).

Operating System (OS): Supercomputers (modern ones) make

use of the Linux OS and its derivative variants while a typical Mainframe
computer is capable of running multiple operating systems
simultaneously.

Size: Supercomputer are basically the largest computers till today

in the world. The size of a supercomputer can differ widely, depending
on how many computers make up the supercomputer. A supercomputer
could be made up of 10, 100, 1000, or more computers, all working
together. As of 2016, the largest supercomputer is the Sunway
TaihuLight in China. It consists of 40,960 RISC processors, each with
256 cores, totaling to 10,649,600 cores (Computer Hope, 2022).
Mainframe computers are also pretty large but are smaller than
supercomputers in size. The size of a Mainframe depends primarily on
its age, modern Mainframe computers are approximately the size of a
large refrigerator (Shea Laverty).

Performance: The performance of supercomputers computers is

faster and much better. It is because of their ability to execute billions of
operations per second while Mainframe computers can simultaneously
execute and perform millions of operations together- but they are slower
and less efficient than supercomputers.

Computer Random Access Memory (RAM) And Read

Only Memory (ROM)

Abstract: Memory is the most essential element of a computing system

because without it a computer can not perform simple tasks. Computer
memory is of two basic types- primary Memory (RAM and ROM) and
Secondary memory (Hard drive, CD etc.). Random Access Memory
(RAM) is a primary-volatile and Read-Only Memory (ROM) is primary-
non-volatile memory (Mittal, 2022).

Keywords: Random Access memory, Read-Only memory

Introduction
RAM allows the computer to read data quickly and efficiently to be able
to run applications efficiently, whereas ROM stores the program required
to initially boot the computer and perform diagnostics. RAM is a common
type of memory found in computers and printers, and can go up to a few
gigabytes. ROM is usually only a few thousand bytes of storage in
personal computers. RAM is primary memory and volatile.

Can the capacity of Computer’s Random-Access

Memory (RAM) and Read-Only Memory (ROM) be
increased?
Random Access Memory (RAM)
RAM (Random Access Memory) is the hardware in a computing device
where the operating system (OS), application programs and data in
current use are kept so they can be quickly reached by the
device's processor. RAM is the main memory in a computer. It is much
faster to read from and write to than other kinds of storage, such as a
hard disk drive (HDD), solid-state drive (SSD) or optical drive.

Random Access Memory is volatile. That means data is retained in RAM

as long as the computer is on, but it is lost when the computer is turned
off. When the computer is rebooted, the OS and other files are reloaded
into RAM, usually from an HDD or SSD

Read-Only Memory (ROM).

Read-only memory, or ROM, is a type of computer memory

containing non-volatile, permanent data that, normally, can only be read,
not written to. ROM contains the programming that allows a computer to
start up or regenerate each time it is turned on. ROM also performs large
input/output (I/O) tasks and protects programs or software instructions.
Once data is written on a ROM chip, it cannot be removed.
Almost every computer incorporates a small amount of ROM that
contains the start-up firmware. This boot firmware is called the basic
input/output system (BIOS). This software consists of code that instructs
the boot-up processes for the computer -- such as loading the operating
system (OS) into the random access memory (RAM) or running
hardware diagnostics. Consequently, ROM is most often used for
firmware updates.

However, ROM is also utilized in video game consoles, allowing one

system to run various games. Additionally, ROM is used in optical
storage, including different kinds of compact discs (CD) such as CD-
ROM and CD-RW. ROM is also used frequently in calculators and
peripheral devices like laser printers, whose fonts are commonly stored
in ROM.

Conclusion
Unlike a computer's RAM, the data in ROM is not lost when the
computer power is turned off. While the ROM chip is commonly used in
the startup operations for the computer, the RAM chip is often used in
the recurrent tasks of the computer once the OS has been configured.

Another difference between ROM and RAM is the amount of space they
contain. ROM chips can only store several megabytes (MB) of data,
usually amounting to between 4 and 8 MB per ROM chip. RAM chips
can store multiple gigabytes (GB); this storage often ranges from 1 to
265 GB per RAM chip. 1 GB is considered to be the equivalent of 1000
MBs. Therefore, RAM displays more extensive memory capabilities.
From the above comparison made between the Random-Access
Memory and the Read-only memory, its evident that the only computer
memory whose capacity can be increased by a user is the Random-
Access Memory because Rom contains very sensitive data that is not
supposed to be tempered with. Contents of the Ready-only memory are
written during the manufacture of that particular computer.

REFERENCES
1. Nguyen, Tuan C. "History of Supercomputers." ThoughtCo, Feb.
16, 2021, thoughtco.com/history-of-supercomputers-4121126.
2. Caleb Clarke  “Mainframe inventors” Feb 11, 2020.
https://www.adaptigent.com/mainframe-inventors/#:~:text=Though
%20there%20was%20no%20mainframe,who%20was%20a
%20Harvard%20researcher.
3. Byju’s exam prep. “Difference between supercomputers and
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supercomputer-and-mainframe-computer/#:~:text=Both%20types
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%20(databases).
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read-only-memory-rom/
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