Storage

Storageisslowerwithahighercapacitythanmainmemory.
Performanceofstorageisbasedontwocharacteristics:
throughputwhichisimproving
latencywhichisimprovingveryslowly

MagneticDisks
Magneticdisks=Harddrivesandfloppydisks
Databitsareonbothsurfacesofthedisks.

AccessTimeforMagneticDisks
Seektimetimetomoveheadassemblytothecorrectcylinder
Rotationallatencytimetomovetodisktothecorrectsector
DataReadtimerequiredtoreadtheentiresector
Controllertimetimetocheckdata(checksum,etc)
I/OBustimetimetoloaddataonthebusandsendtoprocessor

Onlyonediskaccesscanbeperformedatatime,sothereisanadditional
Queuingdelaytimetowaitforavailabilityofthedisk

TrendsforMagneticDisks
Capacityisimproving
SeekTimehasslowlyimproved
RotationSpeedhasimproved
ControllerandBusSpeedhaveimproved

OpticalDisks
Opticaldisks(suchasCDsandDVDs)aresimilartomagneticdisks.
Sincetheyareportable,theyneedtobestandardized,whichslowsimprovement.

MagneticTape
Magnetictapeisusedforsecondary(backup)storage.
Theyhavealargecapacity,butmustbereadsequentially.

UsingRAMforStorage
RAMisbenefittingfromMooresLaw.
SSD=SolidStateDisk
SSDcanbeaDRAMandBattery,itisfast,butexpensive.
FlashMemoryusestransistorsandislowpower.

HybridMagneticFlash
Acombinationofmagneticdiskandflashdrive.Theflashdriveisusedasacacheforthedisk.

ConnectingIODevices
IOdevicesareconnectedtothesystemwithabus.
ThebusesmustbestandardizedtoconnecttoanumberofIOdevices,soimprovement
tothebusareslow.