Chapter 6: Memory and data storage

Memory and data storage

File formats:
1. Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI): This is a communications protocol that
allows electronic musical instruments to interact with each other. It is a parallel transmission in
an asynchronous method.
2. MPEG-3 (MPEG = Motion Pictures Experts Group): This uses audio compression
technology, which is lossy in nature. This technique can only store sound.
3. MPEG-4: This format allows storage of multimedia files than just sound, unlike MPEG-
3. Videos can be streamed over the Internet using MPEG-4 without any noticeable change in the
quality.
4. Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG): This is an image compression technique that
is lossy in nature, which changes the number of pixels per centimeter used to store that image
(i.e. reducing the picture resolution). JPEG will reduce a raw bitmap image by a factor of 5 to 15.
Therefore, a 30 MB picture might become between 2 MB to 6 MB after being compressed using
JPEG.
5. . TIFF and .BMP are raw bitmaps, and the formats that provide the highest image quality
because they are not compressed.
6. The human eye can only distinguish between 10 million colors out of 40 million colors.
 
Compression techniques:
1. Lossy: The file compression method eliminates unnecessary bits of data as seen in MP3
and JPEG formats. The original file cannot be recovered after uncompressing from the lossy
compression.
2. Lossless: All the data bits are reconstructed from the original file after getting
uncompressed, This is necessary in conditions where loss of data could be disastrous, like in
spreadsheets.
Primary Memory:
1. Random Access Memory (RAM): The contents of the memory are lost when the power
is turned off. It is used to store data, files or parts of the OS that are currently in use. It can be
written to or rad from and the contents of the memory can be changed. The larger the size of the
RAM, the faster will the computer work.
1. Dynamic RAM: This needs to be refreshed from time-to-time. This is cheaper
than Static RAM (SRAM); this consumes lesser power than SRAM and this has more storage
too, than SRAM. DRAM’s access speed is 60 nanoseconds.
2. Static RAM: This memory doesn’t need to be refreshed from time-to-time. SRAM
is faster than DRAM – SRAM’s access speed is 25 nanoseconds. It is also much more
effective than DRAM because most programs tend to use the same instructions repeatedly,
which are stored in the SRAM.
2. Read-Only Memory: This is a permanent memory (the contents remain even when the
computer is switched off). This memory is used for startup instructions like the BIOS. The
contents of the ROM can only be read, not written on or deleted.
Secondary Storage:
1. Hard Disk Drives (HDDs):
1. Data is stored on the magnetic surfaces of the disks.
 2. The platters on the HDDs will spin 7000 times per second.
3. Data is stored on the surface in sectors (which have a fixed amount of bytes) and
tracks.
4. The platters have read-write heads, which are required by applications to seek for
the correct blocks of data, as HDDs aren’t as fast as RAM.
5. Latency (which is defined as the time it takes for a specific block of data on a data
track to rotate around the read-write head) becomes a problem then.
2. Solid-state Drives (SSDs):
1. There are no moving parts, so latency is not a problem.
2. The data is retrieved at the same rate.
3. These don’t rely on magnetic properties.
4. Electronically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM) is
used in SSDs, which makes them faster, but more expensive too. This technology uses NOR
chips rather than NAND.
5. EEPROM can delete or read data by the byte, which makes it useful in situations
where bytes are crucial to read or delete, rather than chunks of data that are deleted if NAND
chips are used.
6. Advantages over HDDs:
1. More reliable
2. Considerably lighter
 Don’t need to power up to a certain speed to work properly
1. Lower power consumption
2. Run much cooler than HDDs
3. They have no moving parts – they are thin
 Data access is considerably faster than in HDDs.
1. SSDs have a longevity period of writing data, like 20 GB in 3 years. Thus they are not
used in servers where lots of GBs are written over daily.
3. Off-line storage:
1. CD/DVD disks: These are described as Optical Storage Devices. Laser Light is
used to read and write data in the surface of the disk.
1. DVDs are different than CDs, because of the dual layering in DVDs,
which increases the storage capacity in DVDs over CDs.
2. DVD-RAM:
1. It uses concentric tracks that allows simultaneous read and write
operations to take place
2. They allow up to 100,000 times of read and write operations and have
great longevity (over 30 years), which makes them ideal for archiving.
3. Blu-ray disks:
1. A blue laser instead of a re done is used to carry out read and write
operations.
2. A Blu-ray disk can save 5 times the data that can be stored by DVDs.
 These automatically come with a secure encryption system that helps to prevent piracy
and copyright infringement.
1. USB flash memories/memory sticks: these use solid-state technology.
1. Their advantage is that they are very small and lightweight that makes them
suitable to transfer files between computers. They can also be used for backup.
 2. Complex or expensive software such as Experts Group often use memory sticks
as dongles.
 Digital cameras use memory cards called SD-XD cards.
1. If these sticks or cards are removed during a read or a write operation, the data on it
might be lost or become corrupted.
1. Removable HDDs: These hard disk drives can be used as a backup by connecting it to
one of the USB ports.