Chapter 1:

Data Storage

Introduction to Computer Science

by
Kai-Lung Hua
 Chapter 1: Data Storage

• 1.1 Bits and Their Storage

• 1.2 Main Memory
• 1.3 Mass Storage
• 1.4 Representing Information as Bit Patterns
• 1.5 The Binary System

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Chapter 1: Data Storage (continued)

• 1.6 Storing Integers

• 1.7 Storing Fractions
• 1.8 Data Compression
• 1.9 Communications Errors

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Bits and Bit Patterns

• Bit: Binary Digit (0 or 1)

• Bit Patterns are used to represent information.
– Numbers
– Text characters
– Images
– Sound
– And others

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Boolean Operations

• Boolean Operation: An operation that

manipulates one or more true/false values
• Specific operations
– AND
– OR
– XOR (exclusive or)
– NOT

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Figure 1.1 The Boolean operations AND,
OR, and XOR (exclusive or)

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Gates

• Gate: A device that computes a Boolean

operation
– Often implemented as (small) electronic
circuits
– Provide the building blocks from which
computers are constructed
– VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration)

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Figure 1.2 A pictorial representation of AND,
OR, XOR, and NOT gates as well as their input
and output values

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 Flip-flops

• Flip-flop: A circuit built from gates that can

store one bit.
– One input line is used to set its stored value to 1
– One input line is used to set its stored value to 0
– While both input lines are 0, the most recently
stored value is preserved

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Figure 1.3 A simple flip-flop circuit

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Figure 1.4 Setting the output of a
flip-flop to 1

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Figure 1.4 Setting the output of a
flip-flop to 1 (continued)

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Figure 1.4 Setting the output of a
flip-flop to 1 (continued)

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Figure 1.5 Another way of
constructing a flip-flop

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Hexadecimal Notation

• Hexadecimal notation: A shorthand

notation for long bit patterns
– Divides a pattern into groups of four bits each
– Represents each group by a single symbol
• Example: 10100011 becomes A3

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Figure 1.6 The hexadecimal coding
system

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Main Memory Cells

• Cell: A unit of main memory (typically 8 bits

which is one byte)
– Most significant bit: the bit at the left (high-
order) end of the conceptual row of bits in a
memory cell
– Least significant bit: the bit at the right (low-
order) end of the conceptual row of bits in a
memory cell

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Figure 1.7 The organization of a
byte-size memory cell

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Main Memory Addresses

• Address: A “name” that uniquely identifies one

cell in the computer’s main memory
– The names are actually numbers.
– These numbers are assigned consecutively
starting at zero.
– Numbering the cells in this manner associates
an order with the memory cells.

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Figure 1.8 Memory cells arranged by
address

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Memory Terminology

• Random Access Memory (RAM):

Memory in which individual cells can be
easily accessed in any order
• Dynamic Memory (DRAM): RAM
composed of volatile memory

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Measuring Memory Capacity

• Kilobyte: 210 bytes = 1024 bytes

– Example: 3 KB = 3 times1024 bytes
– Sometimes “kibi” rather than “kilo”
• Megabyte: 220 bytes = 1,048,576 bytes
– Example: 3 MB = 3 times 1,048,576 bytes
– Sometimes “megi” rather than “mega”
• Gigabyte: 230 bytes = 1,073,741,824 bytes
– Example: 3 GB = 3 times 1,073,741,824 bytes
– Sometimes “gigi” rather than “giga”

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Mass Storage

• On-line versus off-line

• Typically larger than main memory
• Typically less volatile than main memory
• Typically slower than main memory

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Mass Storage Systems

• Magnetic Systems
– Disk
– Tape
• Optical Systems
– CD
– DVD
• Flash Drives

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Figure 1.9 A magnetic disk storage
system

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Figure 1.10 Magnetic tape storage

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Figure 1.11 CD storage

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Files

• File: A unit of data stored in mass storage

system
– Fields and keyfields
• Physical record versus Logical record
• Buffer: A memory area used for the
temporary storage of data (usually as a
step in transferring the data)

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Figure 1.12 Logical records versus
physical records on a disk

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Representing Text

• Each character (letter, punctuation, etc.) is

assigned a unique bit pattern.
– ASCII: Uses patterns of 7-bits to represent
most symbols used in written English text
– Unicode: Uses patterns of 16-bits to represent
the major symbols used in languages world
side
– ISO standard: Uses patterns of 32-bits to
represent most symbols used in languages
world wide

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Figure 1.13 The message “Hello.” in
ASCII

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Representing Numeric Values

• Binary notation: Uses bits to represent a

number in base two
• Limitations of computer representations of
numeric values
– Overflow – occurs when a value is too big to
be represented
– Truncation – occurs when a value cannot be
represented accurately

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Representing Images

• Bit map techniques

– Pixel: short for “picture element”
– RGB
– Luminance and chrominance
• Vector techniques
– Scalable
– TrueType and PostScript

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Representing Sound

• Sampling techniques
– Used for high quality recordings
– Records actual audio
• MIDI
– Used in music synthesizers
– Records “musical score”

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Figure 1.14 The sound wave represented by the
sequence 0, 1.5, 2.0, 1.5, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 3.0, 0

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The Binary System

The traditional decimal system is based

on powers of ten.

The Binary system is based on powers

of two.

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Figure 1.15 The base ten and binary
systems

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Figure 1.16 Decoding the binary
representation 100101

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Figure 1.17 An algorithm for finding the
binary representation of a positive integer

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Figure 1.18 Applying the algorithm in
Figure 1.15 to obtain the binary
representation of thirteen

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Figure 1.19 The binary addition facts

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Figure 1.20 Decoding the binary
representation 101.101

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Storing Integers

• Two’s complement notation: The most

popular means of representing integer
values
• Excess notation: Another means of
representing integer values
• Both can suffer from overflow errors.

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Figure 1.21 Two’s complement
notation systems

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Figure 1.22 Coding the value -6 in two’s
complement notation using four bits

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Figure 1.23 Addition problems converted
to two’s complement notation

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Figure 1.24 An excess eight
conversion table

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Figure 1.25 An excess notation system
using bit patterns of length three

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Storing Fractions

• Floating-point Notation: Consists of a

sign bit, a mantissa field, and an exponent
field.
• Related topics include
– Normalized form
– Truncation errors

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Figure 1.26 Floating-point notation
components

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Figure 1.27 Encoding the value
2 5⁄8

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Data Compression

• Lossy versus lossless

• Run-length encoding
• Frequency-dependent encoding
(Huffman codes)
• Relative encoding
• Dictionary encoding (Includes adaptive dictionary
encoding such as LZW encoding.)

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Compressing Images

• GIF: Good for cartoons

• JPEG: Good for photographs
• TIFF: Good for image archiving

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Compressing Audio and Video

• MPEG
– High definition television broadcast
– Video conferencing
• MP3
– Temporal masking
– Frequency masking

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Communication Errors

• Parity bits (even versus odd)

• Checkbytes
• Error correcting codes

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Figure 1.28 The ASCII codes for the
letters A and F adjusted for odd parity

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Figure 1.29 An error-correcting code

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Figure 1.30 Decoding the pattern 010100
using the code in Figure 1.30

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