SELECTING MEASURING

INSTRUMENTS
• Performing measuring and calculation in
computing comes with understanding the digital
unit conversion measurements that helps you
interpret the sizes of storage devices optimally
and efficiently. You also need to be familiar with
the basic language of digital units to better
recognize the storage limits and capacity.
 Understanding Computer Memory
• Computer memory is a common term for all the
various forms of data storage technology, a device that
can use including RAM, ROM, and flash memory.
Many types of computer memory are built to be very
short, which means that the central processing unit
(CPU) can easily access the data stored there.
• Whenever something is loaded or opened, it became
an input in RAM. This simply means it was placed in
the temporary storage area of the computer so that the
CPU could more easily access that information. The
CPU requests, processes and writes new data back to
RAM in a continuous cycle from the data it needs from
the RAM
 The Primary Memory Types
• memory, RAM (random access memory) is a hardware
device that enables the storing and retrieval of information on
a computer but since it’s a volatile type, it forgets everything
when computer turned-off. Whenever something is loaded or
opened, it simply means it was placed in the temporary
storage area of a computer so that the CPU could more easily
access that information. When CPU requests, processes and
writes new data back to RAM in a continuous cycle from the
data it needs from the RAM.
Types of RAM
• DRAM: DRAM stands for Dynamic RAM and it is the
most commonly used type of RAM in computers. The
oldest form is known as Single Data Rate (SDR) DRAM
but modern computers use Dual Data Rate (DDR)
DRAM more rapidly.
• SRAM: SRAM stands for Static RAM, and it is a
different type of RAM that is faster than DRAM but
more costly and bulkier, with six transistors in each cell.
 Read Only Memory (ROM)
• During the process, the CPU starts reading information from ROM
without any devices. The bootstrap code serves as an instruction in
which ROM contains which computer needs to be aware of the
operating system stored in secondary memory, loading parts of the
operating system into primary memory to start the system and become
ready to use. ROM is available in different types, including PROM
(Programmable Read-Only Memory), EPROM (Erasable
Programmable Read-Only Memory) and EEPROM (Electrically
Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory).
The Secondary Memory Types
• A secondary storage drive is a non-volatile unit
that retains data until it has been erased or
overwritten. A hard drive or an alternative,
slower SSD can be used as secondary storage to
a primary, faster, PCIe SSD. There are three
types of secondary storage in a computer system:
 Solid State Storage
• composed of silicon microchips where it can be
written to and overwritten like RAM. However, unlike
RAM, it is non-volatile retain its content even the
computer is switched off. Good thing about this is
being portable and produces less heat than traditional
storage drives. It is also known as external drives like
Solid-State Drives (SSD), USB Flash Drives, Multi
Media Card (MMC), and Secure Digital (SD).
 Optical Storage
• Optical storage technology uses the laser / optical reflection to read or
write data. For optical storage technology, two items are needed; the
optical media that are circular disks and the other is optical drives that
have the laser beam source for lightening, and the photo diodes for
producing voltage patterns when the reflection beam hits them. The
surface of the disks is divided into tracks, and each track includes
several flat areas and hollows. The flat areas are called lands, and the
hollows are known as pits. Different types of discs used today are CD
(Compact Disc), DVD (Digital Versatile Disk), and BD (Blue Ray
Disc).
• There are also three categories of Disc namely
Read-only Drives which can only read data on
disc but cannot write or save; Write Only-Drives
which writes and saves data, and; Read and Write
Drives which has a capability to read and write
on discs.
 Magnetic Storage
• Devices like floppy disks, tape recorder cassettes and hard
disks uses magnetic storage technology where inside have
round platters composed of metal oxide material which
rotates around the spindle in a high speed. Magnetic storage
encodes data thru positive and negative magnetic polarity.
Through magnetizing platters in positive and negative
polarities the pattern are stored in form of bits. The hard disk
drives’ storage capacities range from MBs (Mega bytes) to
TB (Tera-bytes.
 Types of Drive Interfaces
• Manufactured Hard drives and optical drives are made
with a variety of interfaces that made it differ in each
connection with computers. Upon installing a storage
drive in a computer, the connection must be
compatible with both connection interfaces on drives
with controllers on the motherboard. Some common
drive interfaces are as follows:
• Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE), also known as Advanced
Technology Attachment (ATA), is an early type of drive
controller interface that uses a 40-pin connector that connects
computers and hard-disk drives.
• Enhanced Integrated Drive Electronics (EIDE), also known
as ATA-2, is an updated version of the IDE drive controller
interface. EIDE supports hard drives larger than 512 MB,
enables Direct Memory Access (DMA) for speed, and uses
the AT Attachment Packet Interface (ATAPI) to accommodate
optical drives and tape drives on the EIDE bus. An EIDE
interface uses a 40-pin connector.
• Parallel ATA (PATA) refers to ATA drive controller
interface's parallel version.
• Serial ATA (SATA) refers to the seven-pin connector
serial version of the ATA drive controller interface.
• Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) is a multi-
drive controller which works on connecting both
external and internal drives that connect up to 15
drives where it uses a 50-pin, 68-pin or 80-pin
connector.