INTRODUCTION OF STORAGE TECHNOLOGY
Magnetic Hard Drives and Solid-State Hard Drives are two common Hard Drives used for computers. A Magnetic Hard Drive is the term computer users mean when they say Hard Drive, and Solid-State Hard Drive means Flash Memory technology. Without Hard Drives, much information and data would be lost and forgotten.
CLUSTERS, SECTORS, AND TRACKS:- Hard disks have many circular pieces called platters inside them. These platters have two sides that are made up of tracks, sectors, and clusters. A cluster is a group of sectors, and a sector divides tracks into pie-shaped sections. Each cluster, sector, and the track is numbered in order to help the computer quickly locate where specific stored data is. For example, data can be saved to side 2, sector 1, track 5. A track can be compared to the grooves on a music record because there are physical indents where the data is actually stored. Data is read and written by a read/write head, also commonly referred to as a “head.” Each platter has a head. When data is to be stored on a hard disk, the heads will align with the same track on every platter, and write the data across each one. There are a few measurements you can take to see how well a hard disk performs. The most important measurement is calculating seek time. Seek time will tell you how long it takes for a head to move from one track to another. The quicker the seek time the better because that would mean data can be reached faster.
HARD DRIVE INTERFACE STANDARDS:- A Hard Drive interface (or hard disk interface) refers to "the logical and physical means by which the hard disk connects to the PC. "For over a decade, the most common hard drive interface was by a wide margin AT Attachment/ATA, also known as Parallel ATA or PATA. ATA is still used in modern PCs, but it is not as significant as the more modern interface, Serial ATA, or SATA. The more modern SATA uses smaller cables, is more reliable, and possesses greater bandwidth than the now obsolete PATA. SATA and ATA are not compatible, but there exist adapters to connect ATA interfaces with SATA drives (or SATA interfaces with ATA drives). Another common interface is SCSI (or Small Computer System Interface), which is especially useful for multitasking where multiple hard drives are used, such as in a workplace environment. Essentially, the difference between these three interfaces can be summarized as follows:-
ATA interfaces are cheaper and are still fairly common, but they are slower and outdated. SATA interfaces are the most useful: the only problem is that you need to buy additional adapters for them to interact with older systems, but they are still relatively cheap, they have high speed, and their wires are small, which frees up more room in the computer and helps prevent overheating. SCSI interfaces are very fast and can handle a wide range of applications and amounts of data, but they are quite inexpensive and impractical for home use: SCSI is used more for networks than personal use.
FLASH MEMORY:- Flash memory is a type of storage device that uses electronic memory. Flash memory comes in a variety of ways and is known as a Solid-State storage device, meaning “there are no moving parts – everything is electronic instead of mechanical.” Flash memory is used in many different devices, such as computers, digital cameras, and mobile phones. Flash memory is a type of EEPROM chip. EEPROM stands for Electronically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory. Inside of a flash memory chip is a grid of columns and rows with a cell. There are two transistors at each intersection and a thin oxide layer separates them. One transistor is known as a floating gate and the other one is known as the control gate. An electrical charge comes through the columns to the floating gate, which is called tunneling. The electrical charge causes the floating gate transistor to act like an electron gun. When the electrons get trapped on the other side of the thin oxide layer, closer to the control gate transistor, they act as a barrier between the two transistors. A cell sensor monitors the level of the charge. If the flow is above the 50% threshold, it has a value of 1 and if it is less, the value changes to 0. This is how information/data is being read on the flash memory device. Nowadays, flash memory has become the “dominant memory type wherever a system requires a significant amount of non-volatile, Solid-State storage.
EMBEDDED MEMORY:- Embedded memory is becoming an increasingly popular type of flash memory due to its small, convenient size. In today's society, these types of memory can be found in phones, cameras, gaming devices, and even handheld devices like GPS. In July 2013, Samsung announced that they developed the world's fastest embedded memory. These new products will be available in the 16, 32, and 64 GB sizes and feature an interface speed of 400 MB/s. This will increase the user's abilities to multitask and perform tasks such as file transferring, browsing, and gaming. It also decreases the amount of time it takes to boot and load applications. This is a key factor in mobile devices where the physical space for additional storage or memory is limited. Memory cards are being used less and less when manufacturing mobile devices and smartphones. One limitation of the chip is the amount of memory it could store. The larger the chip, the more expensive the device is going to cost. Something else to consider is the problem that arises if the device breaks. Any valuable information that was stored on it is virtually irretrievable. That is one advantage of having a removable memory as discussed below.