Data storage

Is a technology consisting of computer components and recording media used to retain digital
data. It is a core function and fundamental component of computers.

The storage unit is a part of the computer system which is employed to store the information and
instructions to be processed. A storage device is an integral part of the computer hardware which
stores information/data to process the result of any computational work. Without a storage
device, a computer would not be able to run or even boot up. Or in other words, we can say that
a storage device is hardware that is used for storing, porting, or extracting data files. It can also
store information/data both temporarily and permanently.

Types of Computer Memory

1. Primary Memory
2. Secondary Memory
3. Tertiary Memory
1. Primary Memory: It is also known as internal memory and main memory. This is a section
of the CPU that holds program instructions, input data, and intermediate results. It is generally
smaller in size. RAM (Random Access Memory) and ROM (Read Only Memory) are examples
of primary storage.
2. Secondary Memory: Secondary storage is a memory that is stored external to the
computer. It is mainly used for the permanent and long-term storage of programs and data. Hard
Disks, CDs, DVDs, Pen/Flash drives, SSD, etc, are examples of secondary storage.
3. Tertiary Memory: Tertiary Memory is a type of Memory that is rarely used in personal
computers and due to this, tertiary memory is not considered to be an important one. Tertiary
memory works automatically without human intervention.
Types of Computer Storage Devices
Now we will discuss different types of storage devices available in the market. These storage
devices have their own specification and use. Some of the commonly used storage devices are:

1. Primary Storage Devices

2. Magnetic Storage Devices
3. Flash memory Devices
4. Optical Storage Devices
5. Cloud and Virtual Storage

1. Primary Storage Devices

 RAM: It stands for Random Access Memory. It is used to store information that is used
immediately or we can say that it is a temporary memory. Computers bring the software
installed on a hard disk to RAM to process it and to be used by the user. Once, the computer
is turned off, the data is deleted. With the help of RAM, computers can perform multiple
tasks like loading applications, browsing the web, editing a spreadsheet, experiencing the
newest game, etc. It allows you to modify quickly among these tasks, remembering where
you’re in one task once you switch to a different task. It is also used to load and run
applications, like your spreadsheet program, answers commands, like all edits you made
within the spreadsheet, or toggle between multiple programs, like once you left the
spreadsheet to see the email. Memory is nearly always actively employed by your computer.
It ranges from 1GB – 32GB/64GB depending upon the specifications. There are different
types of RAM, and although they all serve the same purpose, the most common ones are :
 SRAM: It stands for Static Random Access Memory. It consists of circuits that
retain stored information as long as the power supply is on. It is also known as
volatile memory. It is used to build Cache memory. The access time of SRAM is
lower and it is much faster as compared to DRAM but in terms of cost, it is costly
as compared to DRAM.
 DRAM: It stands for Dynamic Random Access Memory. It is used to store binary
bits in the form of electrical charges that are applied to capacitors. The access
time of DRAM is slower as compared to SRAM but it is cheaper than SRAM and
has a high packaging density.
 SDRAM: It stands for Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory. It is
faster than DRAM. It is widely used in computers and others. After SDRAM was
introduced, the upgraded version of double data rate RAM, i.e., DDR1, DDR2,
DDR3, and DDR4 was entered into the market and widely used in home/office
desktops and laptops.
 ROM: It stands for Read-Only Memory. The data written or stored in these devices are non-
volatile, i.e, once the data is stored in the memory cannot be modified or deleted. The
memory from which will only read but cannot write it. This type of memory is non-volatile.
The information is stored permanently during manufacture only once. ROM stores
instructions that are used to start a computer. This operation is referred to as bootstrap. It is
also used in other electronic items like washers and microwaves. ROM chips can only store
a few megabytes (MB) of data, which ranges between 4 and 8 MB per ROM chip. There are
two types of ROM:
 PROM: PROM is Programmable Read-Only Memory. These are ROMs that can
be programmed. A special PROM programmer is employed to enter the program
on the PROM. Once the chip has been programmed, information on the PROM
can’t be altered. PROM is non-volatile, that is data is not lost when power is
switched off.
 EPROM: Another sort of memory is the Erasable Programmable Read-Only
Memory. It is possible to erase the info which has been previously stored on an
EPROM and write new data onto the chip.
 EEPROM: EEPROM is Electrically erasable programmable read-only memory.
Here, data can be erased without using ultraviolet light, with the use of just
applying the electric field.
2. Magnetic Storage Devices
 Floppy Disk: Floppy Disk is also known as a floppy diskette. It is generally used on a
personal computer to store data externally. A Floppy disk is made up of a plastic cartridge
and secured with a protective case. Nowadays floppy disk is replaced by new and effective
storage devices like USB, etc.
 Hard Disk: Hard Disk is a storage device (HDD) that stores and retrieves data using
magnetic storage. It is a non-volatile storage device that can be modified or deleted n number
of times without any problem. Most computers and laptops have HDDs as their secondary
storage device. It is actually a set of stacked disks, just like phonograph records. In every
hard disk, the data is recorded electromagnetically in concentric circles or we can say track
present on the hard disk, and with the help of a head just like a phonograph arm(but fixed in
a position) to read the information present on the track. The read-write speed of HDDs is not
so fast but decent. It ranges from a few GBs to a few and more TB.
 Magnetic Card: It is a card in which data is stored by modifying or rearranging the
magnetism of tiny iron-based magnetic particles present on the band of the card. It is also
known as a swipe card. It is used like a passcode(to enter the house or hotel room), credit
card, identity card, etc.
 Tape Cassette: It is also known as a music cassette. It is a rectangular flat container in which
the data is stored in an analog magnetic tape. It is generally used to store audio recordings.
 SuperDisk: It is also called LS-240 and LS-120. It is introduced by Imation Corporation and
it is popular with OEM computers. It can store data up to 240 MB.

3. Flash Memory Devices

It is a cheaper and more portable storage device. It is the most commonly used device to store
data because is more reliable and efficient as compared to other storage devices. Some of the
commonly used flash memory devices are:

 Pen Drive: It is also known as a USB flash drive that includes flash memory with an
integrated USB interface. We can directly connect these devices to our computers and laptops
and read/write data into them in a much faster and more efficient way. These devices are
very portable. It ranges from 1GB to 256GB generally.
 SSD: It stands for Solid State Drive, a mass storage device like HDD. It is more durable
because it does not contain optical disks inside like hard disks. It needs less power as
compared to hard disks, is lightweight, and has 10x faster read and writes speed as compared
to hard disks. But, these are costly as well. While SSDs serve an equivalent function as hard
drives, their internal components are much different. Unlike hard drives, SSDs don’t have
any moving parts and thus they’re called solid-state drives. Instead of storing data on
 magnetic platters, SSDs store data using non-volatile storage. Since SSDs haven’t any
moving parts, they do not need to “spin up”. It ranges from 150GB to a few more TB.
 SD Card: It is known as a Secure Digital Card. It is generally used with electronic devices
like phones, digital cameras, etc. to store larger data. It is portable and the size of the SD
card is also small so that it can easily fit into electronic devices. It is available in different
sizes like 2GB, 4GB, 8GB, etc.
 Memory Card: It is generally used in digital cameras. printers, game consoles, etc. It is also
used to store large amounts of data and is available in different sizes. To run a memory card
on a computer you require a separate memory card reader.
 Multimedia Card: It is also known as MMC. It is an integrated circuit that is generally used
in-car radios, digital cameras, etc. It is an external device to store data/information.

4. Optical Storage Devices

Optical Storage Devices is also secondary storage device. It is a removable storage device.
Following are some optical storage devices:
 CD: It is known as Compact Disc. It contains tracks and sectors on its surface to store data.
It is made up of polycarbonate plastic and is circular in shape. CD can store data up to
700MB. It is of two types:
 CD-R: It stands for Compact Disc read-only. In this type of CD, once the data is
written can not be erased. It is read-only.
 CD-RW: It stands for Compact Disc Read Write. In this type of CD, you can
easily write or erase data multiple times.
 DVD: It is known as Digital Versatile Disc. DVDs are circular flat optical discs used to store
data. It comes in two different sizes one is 4.7GB single-layer discs and another one is 8.5GB
double-layer discs. DVDs look like CDs but the storage capacity of DVDs is more than as
compared to CDs. It is of two types:
 DVD-R: It stands for Digital Versatile Disc read-only. In this type of DVD, once
the data is written can not be erased. It is read-only. It is generally used to write
movies, etc.
 DVD-RW: It stands for Digital Versatile Disc Read Write. In this type of DVD,
you can easily write or erase data multiple times.
 Blu-ray Disc: It is just like CD and DVD but the storage capacity of blu ray is up to 25GB.
To run a Blu-ray disc you need a separate Blu-ray reader. This Blu-ray technology is used to
read a disc from a blue-violet laser due to which the information is stored in greater density
with a longer wavelength.
5. Cloud and Virtual Storage
Nowadays, secondary memory has been upgraded to virtual or cloud storage devices. We can
store our files and other stuff in the cloud and the data is stored for as long as we pay for the
cloud storage. There are many companies that provide cloud services largely Google, Amazon,
Microsoft, etc. We can pay the rent for the amount of space we need and we get multiple benefits
out of it. Though it is actually being stored in a physical device located in the data centers of the
service provider, the user doesn’t interact with the physical device and its maintenance. For
example, Amazon Web Services offers AWS S3 as a type of storage where users can store data
virtually instead of being stored in physical hard drive devices. These sorts of innovations
represent the frontier of where storage media goes.
DATA REPRESENTATION IN A COMPUTER

The introduction of computer technology into information systems compels us to learn how
data/information are transformed or coded to facilitate their storage and processing in the
computer-based information system (CBIS).

Data can be in the form of alphabets, numbers and special symbols, which are all considered as
characters in the computer.

For example, the character set includes

 the 26 uppercase alphabets, A,B,C,D,E,….., Z;

 the 26 lower case alphabets a, b, c, d, e,……,z;
 the punctuation marks such as . , ; : (see the standard keyboard); and
 the special symbols such as ! ^ * + - _
 numbers

A number is composed of digits and there are 10 of such digits namely 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,7, 8, 9 in
the decimal number system. Examples of decimal numbers are 5.1, 1.26, 58.97. A data that is a
string of alphabets and numbers is called an alphanumeric data.

External and Internal Data Representation

External data representation: This is the representation of data in the usual normal language of
the user. For example, the use of English alphabets to represent characters. When documents are
presented for coding and processing, the data in the document is in external representation for the
computer.

Internal Data Representation: Physical devices used to store and process data in computers are
two-state devices as we have in:

i. Punched cards. The two states are the presence and absence of a hole on the card.
ii. Magnetic devices: The two states are achieved when a magnetic surface is magnetized
in either one of two opposite directions.
iii. Conducting devices: The two states are achieved when the material is in conducting
mode or non-conducting mode, as in semiconductors. Thus, all data to be stored and
 processed in computer are transformed or coded as strings of two symbols, one symbol
to represent each state. For convenience, let us denote the two different states by 0 and
1.

• In punched card phenomenon, 0 represents a punched hole and 1 represents not punched

• In magnetic devices, 0 represents magnetic poles aligned left to right (S N) magnetic poles
and 1 represents magnetic pole aligned right to left (N S).

• In conducting devices (such as diodes) 0 represents conducting, while 1 represents non-

conducting mode.

• In general, for any switch (i.e. a device that can exist in two states), let 0 represent OFF and 1
represent ON.

Unit of Storage in Computer System

1. BIT: These two symbols 0 and 1 representing binary digits (base two numerals), each of
which is called a BIT. Thus, a bit is the smallest unit of data in a computer system. The
string of bits is then used to code data in a computer. The number of bits in each string will
depend on the technology (i.e. architecture) of the computer involved. For example, in a 2-
bit computer, each character is represented by 2 bits. The possible characters then are 00
01 10 11. Thus, the maximum number of characters that can be processed by a 2-bit
computer is 4, i.e. 22. For a 3-bit computer, the maximum number of characters that can be
processed will be 23 = 8, and the possible unique representation of the characters is 000
001 010 011 100 101 110 111.
For a 4-bit computer, the maximum number of characters that can be processed will be 2 4
= 16 and the possible unique representation of the characters is 0000 0001 0010 0011 0100
0101 0110 0111 1000 1001 1010 1011 1100 1101 1110 1111.

Assignment: Read more on ASCII (American standard code for information interchange)
 2. Nibble: A group of 4 bits is called nibble.
3. Byte: a byte is defined as consisting of 8 bits i.e. 1 byte = 8 bits. This is the standard
definition of a byte. It is a representation of a character which could be an alphabet, digit,
or special character, i.e a character is made up of 8 bits.
4. Word: A computer word, like a byte, is a group of fixed number of bits processed as a
unit, which varies from computer to computer but is fixed for each computer. The length
of a computer word is called word-size or word length. It may be as small as 8 bits or may
be as long as 96 bits. A computer stores the information in the form of computer words. A
Word is defined as a combination of 2 bytes. i.e. 1 word = 2 bytes
The following table lists some higher storage units:

Kilobyte (KB)
1
1 KB = 1024 Bytes

Megabyte (MB)
2
1 MB = 1024 KB

GigaByte (GB)
3
1 GB = 1024 MB

TeraByte (TB)
4
1 TB = 1024 GB

PetaByte (PB)
5
1 PB = 1024 TB

Representation of Integers

Decimal integers are also represented in the computer in the binary form as a string of bits. A
number in binary form is said to be in base 2. Given a binary equivalent of a data (i.e. character or
number), the leftmost bit is called the most significant bit while the rightmost bit is called the least
significant bit. For example, in 10010 the leftmost bit 1 is the most significant bit while the
rightmost bit 0 is the least significant bit. Conversion of decimal numbers to binary numbers and
vice versa is done automatically by the computer. Let us illustrate how this is done manually.
Conversion is done by dividing the given number by 2 continuously and recording the remainder.
The remainders are written out from down up. While for decimals (0.25, 0.50 etc.) or decimal part
of a number, the decimal is continuously multiplied by 2, until the answer becomes 1.0.

Example 1: Convert the decimal number 43.25 to a binary number.

Conversion of binary numbers to Decimal numbers

A binary number is converted to a decimal number by attaching weights to each position and sum
the products of the weights and the bits. The weights are 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 etc. starting from the right
most bit to the leftmost bit. Then immediately after the decimal point (if any) weights are attached
from 2-1, 2-2, 2-3 etc. from the leftmost decimal digit to the rightmost.

For Example 2: convert 101011.01two to base ten.

1 X 25 + 0 X 24 + 1 X 23 + 0 X 22 + 1 X 21 + 1 X 20 + 0 X 2-1 + 1 X 2-2
= 32 + 0 + 8 + 0 + 2 + 1 + 0 + 0.25 = 43.25

Example 3: Convert 1101101012 to decimal

Example 4: Using Binary Coded Decimal (BCD) code, convert 40010 to binary.

Example 5: Using Binary Coded Decimal (BCD) code, convert 25010 to binary

Octal Number System

Characteristics of the octal number system are as follows −

 Uses eight digits, 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7

 Also called as base 8 number system
 Each position in an octal number represents a 0 power of the base (8). Example 80
  Last position in an octal number represents a x power of the base (8). Example
8x where x represents the last position - 1

Example: Convert 125708 to Decimal

Multiply through

Hexadecimal Number System

Characteristics of hexadecimal number system are as follows −

 Uses 10 digits and 6 letters, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C, D, E, F

 Letters represent the numbers starting from 10. A = 10. B = 11, C = 12, D = 13, E = 14, F
= 15
 Also called as base 16 number system
 Each position in a hexadecimal number represents a 0 power of the base (16). Example,
160
Example: Convert 19FDE16 to base 10.

Multiply through