Chapter 6

External Memory

EEL 4709C
Group 6
Priscila Maldonado
Freddy Figueroa

Types of External Memory

Magnetic Disk
Removable

Optical
CD-ROM
CD-Recordable (CD-R)
CD-R/W
DVD
Blu-Ray DVD

USB Memory

Magnetic Disk
Disk substrate coated with magnetizable material
(iron oxiderust)
Substrate used to be aluminium
Now glass
Improved surface uniformity
Increases reliability

Reduction in surface defects

Reduced read/write errors

Lower flight heights (See later)

Better stiffness to reduce disk dynamics
Better shock/damage resistance

Read and Write Mechanisms

Recording & retrieval via conductive coil called a head
May be single read/write head or separate ones
During read/write, head is stationary, platter rotates
Write
Current through coil produces magnetic field
Pulses sent to head
Magnetic pattern recorded on surface below

Read (traditional)
Magnetic field moving relative to coil produces current
Coil is the same for read and write

Read (contemporary)

Separate read head, close to write head

Partially shielded magneto resistive (MR) sensor
Electrical resistance depends on direction of magnetic field
High frequency operation
Higher storage density and speed

Inductive Write MR Read

Data Organization and Formatting

Concentric rings or tracks
Gaps between tracks
Reduce gap to increase capacity
Same number of bits per track (variable packing density)
Constant angular velocity

Tracks divided into sectors

Minimum block size is one sector
May have more than one sector per block

Disk Data Layout

Disk Velocity
Bit near centre of rotating disk passes fixed point slower
than bit on outside of disk
Increase spacing between bits in different tracks
Rotate disk at constant angular velocity (CAV)
Gives pie shaped sectors and concentric tracks
Individual tracks and sectors addressable
Move head to given track and wait for given sector
Waste of space on outer tracks
Lower data density

Can use zones to increase capacity

Each zone has fixed bits per track
More complex circuitry

Disk Layout Methods Diagram

Finding Sectors
Must be able to identify start of track and sector
Format disk
Additional information not available to user
Marks tracks and sectors

Winchester Disk Format

Seagate ST506

Characteristics
Fixed (rare) or movable head
Removable or fixed
Single or double (usually) sided
Single or multiple platter
Head mechanism
Contact (Floppy)
Fixed gap
Flying (Winchester)

Fixed/Movable Head Disk

Fixed head
One read write head per track
Heads mounted on fixed ridged arm

Movable head
One read write head per side
Mounted on a movable arm

Removable or Not
Removable disk
Can be removed from drive and replaced with another disk
Provides unlimited storage capacity
Easy data transfer between systems

Nonremovable disk
Permanently mounted in the drive

Multiple Platter
One head per side
Heads are joined and aligned
Aligned tracks on each platter form cylinders
Data is striped by cylinder
reduces head movement
Increases speed (transfer rate)

Multiple Platters

Tracks and Cylinders

Floppy Disk
8, 5.25, 3.5
Small capacity
Up to 1.44Mbyte (2.88M never popular)

Slow
Universal
Cheap
Obsolete?

Winchester Hard Disk (1)

Developed by IBM in Winchester (USA)
Sealed unit
One or more platters (disks)
Heads fly on boundary layer of air as disk spins
Very small head to disk gap
Getting more robust

Winchester Hard Disk (2)

Universal
Cheap
Fastest external storage
Getting larger all the time
250 Gigabyte now easily available

Speed
Seek time
Moving head to correct track

(Rotational) latency
Waiting for data to rotate under head

Access time = Seek + Latency

Transfer rate

Timing of Disk I/O Transfer

Optical Storage CD-ROM

Originally for audio
680Mbytes giving over 70 minutes audio
Formed from a resin, like polycarbonate and
covered by highly reflective coat, usually aluminium
Data stored as pits; areas between pits are lands
Lands are smooth surfaces
Read by reflecting laser (low-powered)
Constant packing density
Constant linear velocity (rotate slower at outer edge)

CD Operation

CD-ROM Drive Speeds

Audio is single speed
Constant linear velocity
1.2 ms-1
Track (spiral) is 5.27km long
Gives 4391 seconds = 73.2 minutes

Other speeds are quoted as multiples

e.g. 24x
Quoted figure is maximum drive can achieve

CD-ROM Format

Mode 0=blank data field

Mode 1=2048 byte data+error correction
Mode 2=2336 byte data

Random Access on CD-ROM

Difficult
Move head to rough position
Set correct speed
Read address
Adjust to required location
(Yawn!)

CD-ROM Advantages & Disadvantages

Relatively Large capacity compared to past methods
Easy to mass produce, once the master copy is made
Removable
Robust
Expensive for individual use
Slow (takes up to half a second longer than magnetic
disk)
Read only

Other Optical Storage

CD-Recordable (CD-R)
WORM
Very affordable, better for individual use (archival storage)
Compatible with CD-ROM drives

CD-RW
Erasable (with some limitations)
Getting cheaper
Mostly CD-ROM drive compatible
Phase change
Material has two different reflectivities in different phase states
Laser changes between an amorphous state and a crystalline state.

DVD
Digital Versatile Disk
Replaced VHS video tape
Better than CD's
Bits are closer together, takes about half the space
DVD-ROM can be two-sided unlike CD-ROM

DVD - technology
Multi-layer
Very high capacity (4.7G per layer)
Full length movie on single disk
Using MPEG compression

Movies carry regional coding

Players only play correct region films

DVD Writable
Loads of trouble with standards
First generation DVD drives may not read first
generation DVD-W disks
First generation DVD drives may not read CD-RW
disks

CD and DVD

High Definition Optical Disks

Designed for high definition videos
Much higher capacity than DVD
Shorter wavelength laser
Blue-violet range

Smaller pits

HD-DVD
15GB single side single layer
Gone the way of the 8-track

Blu-ray
Data layer closer to laser
Tighter focus, less distortion, smaller pits

25GB on single layer

Available read only (BD-ROM), Recordable once (BR-R) and rerecordable (BR-RE)

Optical Memory Characteristics

USB Memory
Integrated with a USB (Universal Serial Bus)
Removable, rewritable.
Much better/faster than floppy disks.
Most weigh less than an ounce
Storage capacities can range
from 64 MB to 256 GB

Design and implementation

One end of the device is fitted with a single male

type-A USB connector. Inside the plastic casing is a

small printed circuit board. Mounted on this board
is some simple power circuitry and a small number
of surface-mounted integrated circuits (ICs).
Typically, one of these ICs provides an interface to
the USB port, another drives the onboard memory,
and the other is the flash memory.
Drives typically use the USB mass storage device
class to communicate with the host.
Essential components

Male type-A USB connector. (1)

USB mass storage controller. (2) (OTi-2168)

NAND flash memory chip. (4)

Crystal oscillator. (5)

Additional components

Jumpers and test pins. (3)

LEDs. (6)

Write-protect switches. (7)

Unpopulated space. (8)

USB connector cover or cap.

Transport aid.

Expansion slot.

USES
Personal data transport
Secure storage of data
System administration
Computer repair
Application carriers
Booting operating systems
Windows vista readyBoost
Audio Players
Music storage and marketing
Backup

Advantages
Impervious to scratches and dust, and mechanically very

robust.
Almost all personal computers support USB.
Store data relatively densely compared to many removable
media.
Power efficient, have no fragile moving parts, small and light.
Work without installing device drivers on the computer.
The operating system can use any file system or block
addressing scheme.
Extremely resistant to tough conditions.

Disadvantages
They can sustain only a limited number of write and erase

cycles before failure (takes around 90 million writes for the

drive to die).
Most USB flash drives dont include a write-protect
mechanism. Write-protection is suitable for repairing virusinfected host computers without the risk of infecting the USB
drive itself.
They are easily misplaced because of their small size. As a
consequence of this, some manufacturers have added
encryption hardware to their drives for data protection.
When they are compared to other portable storage device, for
example external hard drives, USB drives have a high price
per unit of storage and are only available in comparatively
small capacities.

Review Questions
What are the advantages of using glass substrate for a magnetic
disk?
2.
How are data written onto a magnetic disk?
3.
How are data read from a magnetic disk?
4.
Explain the difference between a simple CAV system and a
multiple zoned recording system?
5.
What is the typical sector size?
6.
What is the benefit from using Blue-Violet Laser than Red Laser?
7.
How long is the spiral track of a CD-ROM?
8.
What are the essential components of a USB flash drive?
9.
What is the data transfer speed specification for USB 2.0?
10. How many writes does it take for a USB flash drive to fail?
1.

Answers to Review Questions

1.

2.

3.

4.

Improvement in the uniformity of the magnetic film surface to increase disk

reliability. A significant reduction in overall surface defects to help reduce
read/write errors. Ability to support lower fly heights (described subsequently).
Better stiffness to reduce disk dynamics. Greater ability to withstand shock and
damage.
The write mechanism is based on the fact that electricity flowing through a coil
produces a magnetic field. Pulses are sent to the write head, and magnetic
patterns are recorded on the surface below, with different patterns for positive
and negative currents.
The read head consists of a partially shielded magnetoresistive (MR) sensor. The
MR material has an electrical resistance that depends on the direction of the
magnetization of the medium moving under it. By passing a current through the
MR sensor, resistance changes are detected as voltage signals.
For the constant angular velocity (CAV) system, the number of bits per
track is constant. An increase in density is achieved with multiple zoned
recording, in which the surface is divided into a number of zones, with zones
farther from the center containing more bits than zones closer to the center.

Answers to Review Questions

5.
6.

512 bytes.
The benefit of using a blue-violet laser (405nm) is that it has a shorter
wavelength than a red laser (650nm), which makes it possible to
focus the laser spot with even greater precision. This allows data to be
packed more tightly and stored in less space, so it's possible to fit
more data on the disc even though it's the same size as a CD/DVD.
This together with the change of numerical aperture to 0.85 is what
enables Blu-ray Discs to hold 25GB/50GB
7. 3.59 Miles
8. Male type-A USB connector, USB mass storage controller, NAND
flash memory chip, and crystal oscillator.
9. 480 Mb/s.
10. 90 million.

References

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_flash_drive
http://answers.com/topic/keydrive
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/usb.htm
Computer Organization & Architecture