McGraw-Hill Technology Education Copyright © 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

McGraw-Hill Technology Education Copyright © 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
 Chapter 6B

Measuring and
Improving Drive
Performance

McGraw-Hill Technology Education Copyright © 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
 Hard Drive Capacity

Capacity = No. of cylinders * Heads * Sectors/Track *

Bytes/Sector

•Normally Bytes/Sector=512

No. of tracks = Cylinders * Heads

6B-3
 Computing Disk Capacity

Example:
512 bytes/sector
300 sectors/track (on average) 20,000 tracks/surface
Storage Technologies

2 surfaces/platter
5 platters/disk

Capacity = 512×300×20000×2×5 = 30, 720, 000, 000 =

30.72GB
Reading a Sector
To read a sector on a disk
requires:
Seek: the read head is moved to
the proper track.
Rotational latency: the desired
sector must rotate to the read
head.
Storage Technologies

Data transfer: the sector is read

as it rotates under the read
head.
Writing is the same.
 Drive Performance
• Average access time
– Also known as seek time
– Time to find desired data
– Measured in milliseconds
– Depends on two factors
• RPM
• Time to access a track
– Hard drive between 6 and 12 ms
– CD between 80 and 800 ms

6B-6
 Drive Performance
• Data transfer rate
– How fast data can be read
– Measured in Bps or bps
– Hard drive ranges from 15 to 160 MBps
– CD ROMS depend on X factor
• 24x CD transfers 24 x 150 KBps
– Floppy disks transfer at 45 KBps

6B-7
 Data Transfer Rate

6B-8
 Disk Access Time
The average time to access a target sector is approximately:

Taccess = Tseek + Trotation + Ttransfer

Seek time (Tseek)

Time to position heads over cylinder containing the target sector.
Storage Technologies

Average Tseek = 9ms

Rotational latency (Trotation)

Time waiting for first bit of target sector to pass under read/write head.
Average Trotation = 1/2 × 1/RPMs × 60sec/1min

Transfer time (Ttransfer)

Time to read the bits in the target sector. Average
Ttransfer = 1/RPM × 1/((average sectors/track) × 60sec/1min
Disk Access Time Example
• Given:
– Rotational rate: 7,200 RPM Average seek time: 9 ms
– Average sectors/track: 400
• Derived:
– Average Tseek: 1/2 × (60sec/7200RPM × 1000ms/sec = 4ms
– Average Ttransfer: 60/7200RPM × 1/(400 sectors/track) ×
1000ms/sec = 0.02ms
– Taccess: 9 ms + 4 ms + 0.02 ms

• Important points:
– Access time is dominated by seek time and rotational latency. The
first bit in a sector is the most expensive; the rest are free.
– SRAM access time is about 4ns / doubleword; DRAM about
60ns.
– Disk is about 40,000 times slower than SRAM, and 2,500 times
slower than DRAM.
 Optimizing Performance
• Disk optimization
– Handled by operating system tool
– Routine disk maintenance
– Optimization should be run monthly

6B-11
 Optimizing Performance
• Clean up unnecessary files
– Delete temp files
– Uninstall unused programs
– Delete obsolete data files
– Files should be cleaned weekly

6B-12
 Optimizing Performance
• Scan a disk for errors
– Bad spots on the media
– Find and fix the error
• Move data to a good spot
• Mark the spot as bad
– Disks should be scanned monthly

6B-13
 Optimizing Performance
• Defragment a disk
– Files fragment when resaved
– Fragmented files load slower
– Defragment puts the fragments together
– Disks should be defragged monthly

6B-14
 Defragment

6B-15
 Optimizing Performance
• File compression
– Shrinks the size of a file
– Takes up less space on disk
– Reduce a disks performance
– Will increase disk capacity
– PKZip, WinZip and WinRAR

6B-16
 File Compression

763 KB
on disk

Compressed
157 KB

6B-17
 Drive Interface Standards
• Interface
– How the device is connected
– Drive controllers allow transfer of data
– Dictates transfer rate and access time

6B-18
 Drive Interface Standards
• Enhanced Integrated Drive Electronics
– EIDE
– Generic term for drive controllers
– Several names
• Fast IDE
• Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA)
– Up to 2 devices per controller
– Most computers have 2 EIDE controllers

6B-19
 Drive Interface Standards
• Small Computer System Interface
– SCSI
– Higher transfer rates than EIDE
– More than 40 devices per SCSI controller
• Computers may have several SCSI controllers
– Many versions exist
• Versions are typically incompatible
– Found in servers and workstations

6B-20
 Drive Interface Standards
• USB and FireWire
– External drives
– Transfer rate is limited
– Many devices can be connected

6B-21
 Chapter 6B

End of Chapter

McGraw-Hill Technology Education Copyright © 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.