STORAGE OF DATA |
| |
Computer sores data in chips inside the main processor is called memory or in other media such as magnetic disk, is called a backing store. |
| |
The number of instructions and amount of data a computer can store in its memory is measured in bytes. One byte contains 8 bits. Computer works by using pulses of voltage which represent either 0 or 1. A low voltage pulse represents a 0 and a high voltage pulse represents as 1. In most cases 8 bits are needed to store one character. |
| |
1KB (1 kilobyte) = 1024 bytes
1MB (1 megabyte) = 1024 KB
1GB (1 gigabyte) = 1024 MB |
| |
| MAGNETIC MEDIA |
| |
| Magnetic Disk |
It is a circular disk made of plastic, coated with a layer of magnetic material on which data can be stored by magnetically setting the arrangement of the magnetic material. |
| |
| Floppy Disk |
A magnetically coated disk used to store data. The 3.5 inch floppy disk hold 1.44MB of data. The disk need to be formatted. This creates a magnetic map on the disk surface to enable read from the disk or write onto the disk quickly.
|
| |
| Hard Disk |
| Magnetic disk which provides more storage and faster access than a floppy disk. Consists of several disks on a single spindle. Each disk surface is able to store data and this has the advantage that each surface have its own read/write head. This enables the read/write heads to operate simultaneously, which means that the data can be transferred more quickly. |
| |
| |
