Storage capacity :

Storage capacity of a disk system= number of recording surfaces * number of tracks per surface
* Number of sectors per track * Number of bytes per sector.

Access Mechanism : To access the piece of data from the disk, we need to specify its disk
address, which is comprised of sector number, track number/cylinder number, and surface
number (when multiple disk platter are used). Once the address is obtained the arm assembly
along with disk rotation and r/w head completes the read/write operation.

Access Time : Data access time is the interval between the computer makes a request for transfer
of data from a disk system to primary memory and the time this operation completes. A disk
stores information from the beginning of a sector and reads information always from the
beginning of a track. Hence disk access time depends upon following 3 parameters.

1. Seek Time: The time required to position the read/write heads on a specific track/ cylinder is
called seek time. Seek time varies depending on the position of access arms assembly when a
read/write command is received. Average seek time is between 10 to 100 milliseconds.

2. Latency: It is the time required to rotate the specified sector under the read/write head.
Latency is also known as rotational delay. The value of latency depends upon the distance of the
specified sector from the initial position of the head on the specified track. It also depends upon
the disk rotation speed which varies between 300 rpm to 7200 rpm. Average latency varies
between 5 to 80 millisecond.
3. Transfer Rate : Transfer rate is the rate at which a computer read/write data from/to a disk
into memory. Once the disk drive positions the read/write head on a specified sector, it
read/writes data at a speed determined by the rotational speed of the disk.

Advantages of Magnetic Disks

1. Magnetic disks support direct access mechanism for data storage. It makes them suitable for
most of the application.
2. Magnetic disks have high data recording density and cost per bit is low.
3. Data access time in magnetic disks is superior to magnetic tape.
4. Size of magnetic disks is compact and magnetic disks such as zip disks, floppy disks are easily
portable.
5. Magnetic disks are used for both online and offline storage.

Limitations of Magnetic Disks

1. The use of magnetic disks for sequential access is less efficient in comparison to magnetic
tape.
2. It is difficult to maintain security of information stored on magnetic disks.
3. To recover data from a crashed magnetic disks is very difficult.

Types of Magnetic Disks: Hard disk, Floppy Disk

Parts of Hard disk

Magnetic Tapes : magnetic tape is most common sequential access secondary storage device. It
is mostly used as a backup storage for data stored on online storage devices such as hard disk.
Storage Organization
Magnetic tapes are logically divided into vertical and horizontal sections. Vertical sections are
called frames whereas horizontal sections are called Channels or Tracks. Older tapes had 7 tracks
and they used 6-bit
bit BCD (binary coded decimal) codes for data storage, remaining 1 bit act as
parity bit which is used
sed for error detection. Most of the modern tapes have 9 tracks and use 8-bit
8
EBCDIC (Extended Binary coded decimal Interchange code) remaining 1 bit here also act as
parity bit.

Parity : Parity refers to the condition to check whether two (or more) thing
thingss are equal to each
other or not. In computing even/odd parity bit is used for the purpose of error detection.

A magnetic tape is a continuous medium, which record data serially. There is no addressing.
Records are separated by inter record gaps (IRG). The tape record IRGs automatically as it
writes data on tape. Each IRG is about 0.5 inches. While reading data from a moving tape, a tape
drive stops tape movement when it encounters an IRG. The tape remains stationary during the
processing of IRG and then moves again to read the next record.

Storage capacity:

Storage capacity of a tape= Data recording density * length

Data recording density is measured as dpi (dots per inch). In older tapes data recording density
was 800 dpi whereas modern tapes has 77
77000 dpi.
Data Transfer Rate :

Data transfer rate = tape speed * data recording density

Advantages of Magnetic Tapes

1. Storage capacity of magnetic tapes is very high.
2. Cost per bit of Storage is very low in magnetic tapes.
3. Magnetic tape reels and cartridges are easily portable because of their compact size and
lightweight.
Limitations of magnetic tape:
1. Magnetic tapes are not suitable for storage of data that need to be accessed randomly.
2. We must store magnetic tapes in dust free environment because specks of dust cause tape-
reading errors.

Magnetic tape in use

Optical Disks
An optical – disk storage system consists of a metallic or plastic disk coated with a highly
reflective material. Optical disks are also known as laser disks or optical laser disks because they
use laser beam technology for data read/write.

Storage Organization
Unlike magnetic disks having several concentric tracks and optical disk has one long track
starting at the outer edge and spiraling inward to the center. Spiral track is ideal for reading large
blocks of sequential data such as audio or video. It however, causes lower random access of data
than in case of concentric tracks used by magnetic disks.
Spiral track organization divides the spiral track of an optical disk into equal length sectors
regardless of the position of a sector from the center. All the sectors being of equal length
enables data packing at maximum density over the entire disk. However, it also requires a more
complicated drive mechanism because the rotational speed of the disk must vary inversely with
the radius. That is the drive must slow down the disk’s rotation speed to read/write data from/to
sectors towards the periphery of the disk, and speed it up to read/write data from/to sectors
towards the center of the disk.

Storage capacity:
Optical disks comes in various sizes ranging between 12.0 inch to 3.0 inch diameter, the most
common one is 5.25 inch diameter with capacity of 650 Megabytes.
Storage capacity of an optical disk= Number of sectors * Number of Bytes per sector

5.25 inch optical disk typically has 330000 sectors each of 2352 bytes, making its storage
capacity equal to 330000*2352= 776*106 Bytes= 776 MB , this is unformatted capacity,
formatted capacity is 650 MB.
Access Mechanism
An optical disk drive uses laser beam technology for reading/writing of data form/to an optical
disk surface. It has two laser beam sources. It uses one laser beam (of greater intensity) to write
data by etching microscopic pits on the disk surface and aanother
nother low intensity laser beam to red
data from disk surface. While writing data it turns the beam ON and OFF corresponding to the
data to be written 1 or 0. To read data it focuses the less powerful beam on disk surface. This
beam is strongly reflected by y coated surface known as land and weekly reflected by the burnt
surface called pits, which produce a pattern of ON and OFF reflections, which are converted by
sensor into signals of binary 1 and 0.
Access Time:
1. Sectors of an optical disk are on a concontinuous
tinuous spiral track. This results in slower random
access than in concentric track organization.
2. Each sector has the same length regardless of its position therefore the disk speed has to vary
according to the radius of the read/write sector. Slower at periphery and faster towards the center
of the disk.
3. Optical disks are prone to scratches, dust, sticky print etc. while handling. This cause the read
mechanism to employ error correction mechanisms.
4. The entire read/write assembly is not a sealed uunit.
nit. Therefore disk cannot be rotated at a very
fast speed. It may damage the disk and other parts.
Advantages:
1. Cost per bit of storage is very low.
2. Ideal for storage of large block of sequential data such as audio or video.
3. Optical disks have data storage capacity of 30 years.
4. Due to compact size and light weight. They are easy to handle and carry.
Limitations
1. Data access speed of optical disks is slower than magnetic disk.
2. Optical disks need more complicated drive system due to single continuous track.
3. It is prone to scratches, dust, sticky prints etc. while handling.

Various types of optical disks and representation of data storage technology used in them

CPU (Central Processing Unit)

CPU is the heart and brain of a computer

computer. CPU is the hardware within a computer that carries out
the instructions of a computer program by performing the basic arithmetical, logical, control and
input/output operations of the system. The term has been in use in the computer industry at least
l
since the early 1960s. The form, design, and implementation of CPUs have changed over the
course of their history, but their fundamental operation remains much the same.

CPU operation is determined by the instruction it executes, collection of these instructions that a
CPU can execute forms its instruction set. An instruction is represented as sequence of bits,
which has two parts opcode and operands. Opcode indicates the operation to be performed, the
nature of operands (data or address) and mode (register or memory),

A computer can have more than one CPU; this is called multiprocessing. All modern CPUs are
microprocessors, meaning contained on a single chip. Some integrated circuits (ICs) can contain
multiple CPUs on a single chip; those ICs are called multi-core processors.

ALU (Arithmetic Logic Unit)

An arithmetic logic unit (ALU) is a digital circuit used to perform arithmetic and logic
operations. It represents the fundamental building block of the central processing unit (CPU) of a
computer. Modern CPUs contain very powerful and complex ALUs. Most of the operations of a
CPU are performed by one or more ALUs, which load data from input registers. A register is a
small amount of storage available as part of a CPU. The control unit tells the ALU what
operation to perform on what data and the ALU stores the result in an output register. The
control unit moves the data between these registers, the ALU, and memory.

An ALU performs basic arithmetic and logic operations. Examples of arithmetic operations are
addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Examples of logic operations are comparisons
of values such as NOT, AND, and OR.

All information in a computer is stored and manipulated in the form of binary numbers, i.e. 0
and 1. Transistor switches are used to manipulate binary numbers since there are only two
possible states of a switch: open or closed. An open transistor, through which there is no current,
represents a 0. A closed transistor, through which there is a current, represents a 1.

Operations can be accomplished by connecting multiple transistors. One transistor can be used to
control a second one - in effect, turning the transistor switch on or off depending on the state of
the second transistor. This is referred to as a gate because the arrangement can be used to allow
or stop a current.

The simplest type of operation is a NOT gate. This uses

only a single transistor. It uses a single input and produces a
single output, which is always the opposite of the input.
This figure shows the logic of the NOT gate

Memory Registers

Registers are memories located within the Central Processing Unit (CPU). They are few in
number (there are rarely more than 64 registers) and also small in size, typically a register is less
than 64 bits in size. The contents of a register can be read or written very quickly however, often
an order of magnitude faster than main memory and several orders of magnitude faster than disk
memory. Different kinds of register are found within the CPU. General Purpose Registers are
available for general use by the programmer. Unless the context implies otherwise we’ll use the
term "Register" to refer to a General Purpose Register within the CPU. Most modern CPU’s have
between 16 and 64 General Purpose Registers. Special Purpose Registers have special uses and
are either nonprogrammable and internal to the CPU or accessed with special instructions by the
programmer. Examples of such registers include:

1. Program Control Register (PC) : It holds the address of the next instruction to be executed.
Normally the instruction are stored in consecutive memory locations (in the main memory) and
executed in sequence until it encounter a branch instruction.

2. Memory Address Register ( MAR ) : It holds the address of the active memory location. It is
loaded from the program control register when the system reads an instruction from memory.

3. Memory Buffer Register ( MBR ) : It holds the contents of the accessed read/ write memory
word.

4. Accumulator Register ( A) : It stores the data on which the system has to operate ,
intermediate results and results of the operations performed.

5. Instruction Register (I): It holds the current instruction under execution. As soon as the
instruction is stored in the register, its operation and instruction parts are separated. The system
send the address part to the MAR register and instruction part is send to the CU for decoding and
interpretation. CU then generated and sends the command for the appropriate unit to carry out
the specified operation.

6. I/O register (I/O): These registers are used to communicate with I/O devices. Input devices
send their information to the input registers

Although Register Size (the size of the Register bit-group) tends to vary according to register
type, the Word Size of an Architecture is often (but not always!) defined by the Size of the
General Purpose Registers. In contrast to Main memory and disk memory, registers are
addressed directly by specific instructions or by encoding a register number within a computer
instruction. At the programming (assembly) language level of the CPU, registers are normally
specified with special identifiers (e.g. R0, R1, R7, SP, PC)

The contents of a register are lost if power to the CPU is turned off, so registers are unsuitable
for holding long-term information or information that is needed for retention after a power-
shutdown or failure. Registers are however, the fastest memories, and if exploited can result in
programs that execute very quickly.

Input-Output Devices

Input device

Input device is a device through which data and instruction are entered into computer system. An
input devices converts the data and instructions into binary form that computer can understand.
This transformation is performed by “Input interface”.

The data entered through input device can be some text, some graphical image or symbol, sound
etc, depending on the form of the raw data the various input devices are available.

Basic Function Performed by Input unit of a computer system -

1. It accepts the instruction and data from the user.

2. It converts these instruction and data in computer acceptable form.
3. It supplies the converted instruction and data to the computer system for further processing.
Some of the commonly input devices used are:-

1. Keyboard
2. Mouse
3. Joy stick
4. Track ball
5. Touch screen
6. Light Pen
7. Digitizer
8. Scanner
9. Speech Recognition Devices
1. Keyboard
Keyboard is an input device for entering data and instructions into a computer. Data is entered
into the computer by pressing set of keys available with this device. The most popular keyboard
used today is the 101-keys QWERTY keyboard but multimedia keyboard is also available which
contains more than 101 keys.

Keyboard keys are arranged in 6 groups such as:

1. Alphanumeric keys: - The alphanumeric keys are the collection of alphabets A-Z, numerals
from 0-9 and punctuation marks that are arranged the same way on almost every keyboard.
2. Numeric keys: - It is usually located on right side of keyboard and appears like a non-
scientific calculator with ten digits (0-9) and arithmetic operators.
3. Function keys: - The Function keys numbered from F1 to F12 are usually arranged in a first
row at top of keyboard. Each function key performs different function depending upon the
current application being run by user.
4. Cursor movement keys: - These keys allows user to change the position of the cursor on the
screen. Cursor movement keys move cursor up, down, left and right.
5. Special purpose keys: - These keys perform special function i.e. insert, delete, print screen.
6. Modifier keys: - These keys are used in conjunction with other keys. Modifier keys include
keys such as Alt (Alternate), Shift and Ctrl (Control).

2. Mouse

Mouse is a pointing device that controls the position of the cursor on

a computer screen without using keyboard. It is called pointing
device because it is used to point and select option on screen. There
are two or more depression switched on the top of mouse.

Types of Mouse: -

1) Mechanical mouse
It has rubber or metal ball on its underside that can roll in all directions. Mechanical sensors
within mouse detect the direction the ball is rolling and move the screen pointer accordingly.
2) Optomechanical mouse
It is same as a mechanical mouse but it uses optical sensor to detect motion of the ball.
3) Optical mouse
It uses a laser to detect the mouse’s movement. It respond more quickly and precisely than
mechanical and Optomechanical mouse, but is more expensive.

Three simple techniques to use mouse: -

1) Clicking: - To click on something with the mouse means, to move the pointer to the item on
the screen and to press and release the mouse button once.
2) Double clicking: - To double click on item means, to move the pointer to the item on the
screen and to press and release the mouse button twice with quick succession.
3) Dragging: - To drag an item, user position the mouse cursor over the item, the press the
mouse button and hold it down as you move mouse.

3. Joy stick
It is also a pointing device which is used to move cursor position on a monitor
screen. It consists of a lever which moves in all directions and controls the
movement of pointer. Lever is having spherical ball at its base. When the lever
steers the cursor moved in the respective direction. Potentiometers are used to
sense the movements. On most of joystick a button at top is provided to select
the option.

E.g. It is commonly used with computer games, flight simulators and for
controlling robots.

4. Track ball

Track ball is pointing device that works like an upside down mouse. The only
difference is that the ball in case of the track ball is placed on the top along with
the button of the trackball. The movement of cursor is controlled by movement
of ball by the fingers.Trackball is most commonly used in notebook or laptop
instead of a mouse.