Storage

102 Storage Notes | PDF

 

Audio Quick Review (8:00)


Review Questions

This is not work to be turned in for a grade.  They are however very similar to the questions on the Comprehension Quiz.

  1. What type of storage is main memory? 
  2. What type of storage is the hard drive? 
  3. What type of storage is a CD?
  4. What type of storage is a thumb drive?
  5. Of the four storage components in the previous questions, how do their speeds compare? 
  6. Of the four storage components in the previous questions, which are volatile?
  7. What is the purpose of the magnetic read-write head?
  8. Why do HDs have multiple read-write heads?
  9. What is the purpose of the HD controller?
  10. What is the purpose of the platters?
  11. What is the purpose of the spindle?
  12. What is the purpose of the arm?
  13. What information needs to be sent to the HD controller before it can do a write?
  14. What information needs to be sent to the HD controller before it can do a read?
  15. What has to happen before a HD can read or write data at a specific sector?
  16. Briefly list the stepsthe hardware goes through to save data to the HD.
  17. Briefly list the steps the hardware goes through to retieve data from the HD.
  18. What is latency?
  19. 32 GB is how many MB? How many KB?  How many TB?
  20. List in increasing order of size: GB MB TB, KB, B
  21. Why don't we use the same type of storage we use for MM in the HD?
  22. Why don't we use the same type of storage we use for the HD in MM?
  23. How are the specific storage technologies used in MM and the cache different?
  24. Why do caches have multiple levels?
  25. What is write endurance?
  26. What are lands and pits?