Auxiliary Storage

Introduction
Memory Hierarchy
What is Secondary Storage?
The Advantages of Secondary Storage
The Disadvantages of Secondary Storage
Evolution of Secondary Storage Devices
Types of Secondary Storage
Types of Optical Disk
Why we use Secondary Storage Devices
 Memory of Computers
Every computer system consists of a variety of
devices to store the instructions and data
required for its operation. The instructions and
data are stored in the memory (storage) unit of
the computer. The memory components of a
computer system can be divided into following
main groups:
Primary Storage (Main Memory),
Secondary Storage (Auxiliary Memory), and
Internal Processor Storage.
 Memory hierarchy
 Computer memory divide in to detail levels as a
memory hierarchy
 "Memory hierarchy" in computer storage distinguishes
each level in the "hierarchy" by response time.
 Since response time, complexity, and capacity are
related the levels may also be distinguished by those
factors as well.
 There are four major storage levels,
 Internal – Processor registers and cache.
 Main – the system RAM and controller cards.
 On-line mass storage – Secondary storage (Auxiliary
Storage).
 Off-line bulk storage – Tertiary and Off-line storage.
 Secondary Storage (Auxiliary
Memory)
• Secondary storage technology refers to storage
devices and storage media that are not always
directly accessible by a computer. This differs
from primary storage technology, such as an
internal hard drive, which is constantly
available.
• In Computer Science, “Any means of storing
and retrieving data external to the main
computer itself but accessible to the program.”
Secondary Storage (Auxiliary
Memory)
 Secondary Storage (Auxiliary
Memory)
• Used in a computer system to overcome the
limitations of primary storage,
• Has virtually unlimited capacity because the
cost per bit of storage is very low,
• Has an operating speed far slower than that of
the primary storage,
• Used to store large volumes of data on a
permanent basis,
• Also known as auxiliary memory.
 Advantages
• The advantages of Secondary storage are
given below:
• Secondary storage devices are safe, reliable
and permanent.
• High speed storage device.
• Huge volume data are stored.
• Less expensive.
• It is nonvolatile.
 Disadvatages
• While RAM electronic storage devices are fast,
secondary storage devices are slower because
they are electro-mechanical.
• The information on the secondary device has to
be first located, then copied and moved to the
primary memory or RAM.
• Takes more time.
 Evolution of Secondary Storage
• The first hard drive was used in 1956 which is created
by IBM and whose capacity was 5 MB.
• In 1971, IBM introduced a technology called the floppy
disk,
• At the beginning of the 1980s the first optical devices
were released by Sony and Philips. This drive can
store approximately 650 to 700 of data.
• From 1990 to till now there are many devices is
created like card reader, Memory Stick, Multimedia
Card etc.
 Types of Secondary Storage
• Magnetic Tape.

• Magnetic Disk.

• Optical Disk.
 Tape Backups/Magnetic Tapes
• Oldest storage device,
• Used for large computer like mainframe
computers,
• Made of plastic coated with magnetic material,
• Store data permanently,
• Used to read and write data,
• Cost of storing data is expensive,
• Used in reels.
 Tape Backups/Magnetic Tapes
 Hard drives may fail-data must be backed up onto
another storage medium
 Provides ability to periodically copy the contents of data
from usual storage device to a tape cartridge device.
 Use tape magnetic tape medium for storage instead of
disks and it is slow.
 Can store large amounts of data internally or externally.
 Magnetic Disk
• A thin circular metal or plastic disk coated with
magnetic material,
• Stored data in the form of magnetic spots,
• A random access device,
• Faster than magnetic tape.
• There are three main types of magnetic disk:
 Hard Disk
 Floppy Disk
 Zip Disk
 Hard Disks
• Usually used as secondary storage,
• Also called fixed disk,
• Consists of one or more metal plates,
• Metal plates are coated with magnetic material
to store data,
• Also have an access arm and read / write
heads.
 Hard Disks
 The first hard disk consists of one or more platters
inside of an air-sealed casing.
 Internal hard disks reside in a drive bay and connect
to the motherboard using an ATA, SCSI, or SATA
cable, and are powered by a connection to the PSU
(power supply unit).
 Desktop hard disks consists of the following
components: head actuator, read/write actuator arm,
read/write head, spindle, and platter. On the back of a
hard drive is a circuit board called the disk controller.
 External hard disks also available with 32GB,
1000GB, 5000GB, 1TB ect.
 How Hard Drive Works?
 Disk controller interpreted the data sent to and from
the hard drive and tells the hard drive what to do and
how to move the components within the drive.
 When the OS needs to read/write information, it
examines the hard drive's File Allocation Table (FAT)
to determine file location and available areas.
 Then the disk controller instructs the actuator to move
the read/write arm and align the read/write head.
 Files are often scattered throughout the platter, the
head needs to move to different locations to access
all information.
 Floppy Disks
 Diskettes.
 Flexible disk and Floppies
 The plastic disk inside the diskette cover is flexible
 Portable storage media
 Floppy disk drives (FDD)
 Store data and programs by altering the electromagnetic
charges on the
 Disk surface to represent ones and zeroes.
 Characters are represented by positive + and –
charges using ASCII code.
Traditional Floppy Diskette
3.5 inch, 1.44 MB
 Types of Floppies
 High capacity
 Known as a floppy-disk cartridge
 Require special disk drives
 Three well known types
 Zip disks (Iomega)
 100MB, 250MB, 750MB
 HiFD disks (Sony)
 200MB, 720MB, read and store data on 1.44MB disk
 SuperDisks (Imation)
 240MB, 120MB
 Zip Disk
• Similar to 3 ½ inch floppy disk,
• Can store 100 MB or more data.
• Used to read and write data.
 Optical Disk
• Used LASER technology to read and write
data,
• LASER stands for Light Amplification through
Emission of Radiation,
• Laser beam writes on the surface of optical disk
by creating very small holes.
• The presence of hole represents a One, and
absence of the hole represents a Zero.
 Optical Disks
• Enables a computer to read discs via optical drives.
• Some drive can only read discs, but recent drives are both reader
and recorders.

How Optical Drive Work

 Three layers: Plastic disc part-bottom layer, Reflective surface-
middle layer and protects the data itself-top layer.
 Operation of Optical Disks
• A laser focuses a beam of light on
the reflective layer on the optical
disc

• The beam focused on pits is

scattered, whereas on lands it is
reflected back with higher intensity
and is stored in photo diode array

• Burning a CD, it involves use of a

mold to stamp press the data in
pits on the reflective layer in the
disc

• Two main types of optical storage:

CD and DVD. Look exactly the
same, but DVDs hold much more
data than CDs and need different
drives to read them.
Compact Disks
 From 650 MB to 1 GB capacity

 Rotation speeds vary

Types
 CD-ROMs are read only – you can read data from them
but can’t write more data to them.

 CD-Rs allow you to write data once, but you can’t write
over it.

 CD-RWs allow you to write data and then record new data
over it.
 Writable and Re-Writable CDs
 Use phase change technology by using a LASER of different
power levels.

 Contains a polycarbonate substrate, which is preformed with a

spiral groove to guide the laser.

 Alloy phase-change recording layer is sandwiched between two

dielectric layers in order to draw excess heat.

 After heating to one particular temperature, the alloy will become

crystalline.
 Writable and Re-Writable CDs cont.
 It will become amorphous when it is cooled.

 By controlling the temperature of the laser, crystalline areas and

non-crystalline areas are formed.

 Crystalline areas reflect the laser and other areas absorb it. The
differences will register as binary data that can be unencoded for
playback.

 To erase or write over recorded data, the higher temperature

laser is used.
 Digital Versatile Disks
 Digital Versatile Disk or Digital Video Disk (DVD)
 Similar to CDs, but can store more data
Types
 Read only
 Write once
 Rewritable features DVD-Rs and RWs follow the same
pattern as compact disks.

Note:Need special software to write to CDs and DVDs – you

cannot simply copy files to them.
 A Look to the Future:Blu-Ray
Technology
 New standard in storage Blu-Ray
 New disks use blue laser light instead of the red
laser light used in traditional CD players
 Disks may ultimately hold
 Over 30GB on one-sided disks
 Over 50GB on two-sided disks
 USB Memory
 Small and portable flash memory card that plugs into
a USB port.
 Functions as a portable hard drive.
 More durable and hot swappable(plug and use
without restart).
 Called as thumb drives, jump drives, pen drives, key
drives, tokens, or simply USB drives.
 Available capacities - 256MB, 512MB, 1GB, 5GB, and
16GB
 Only contains an integrated circuit memory board
capable of storing information
 Why Use Secondary Storage
• It is non volatile and permanent.
• Used for a very simple task backing up data.
• Used to serve as an external hard drive.
• Becoming more and more portable as
technology progresses.
• Many businesses will connect secondary
storage devices to share files.
• Keep data on them for future use.
• Additional space for data.