List out some differences between SRAM and DRAM.

SRAM DRAM

1. It is faster that DRAM. 1. It is slower than SRAM.

1 It is more expensive. 1 It is less expensive.

1 It does not need to be power- 1 It has to be refreshed after each read

refreshed. operation.

1 It utilizes less power. 1 It utilizes more power.

List out some difference between RAM and ROM.

RAM ROM

1. Ram is temporary memory. 1. ROM is permanent memory.

1 The data in RAM can be changed or 1 The instructions written in ROM

deleted. cannot be changed or deleted

1 It is not possible to write new

1 Instructions in Ram change
information or instructions in ROM.
continuously as different programs are
executed and new data is processed.

1 RAM is a volatile memory. 1 ROM is non-volatile memory.

 1 The instruction is written into the 1 The instructions written into ROM at
RAM at the time of execution. manufacturing time.

List out some differences between PROM and EPROM.

1. It is a programmable memory. 1. It is electronically programmable memory.

2. The user can write instructions on PROM
only once.
3. The instructions written by the user cannot
be erased from PROM.
4. If there is an error while writing on PROM,
it becomes unusable.
5. It provides less usability as instructions are
written only once.
2. The user can write instructions on EPROM
many times.
3. The instructions written by the user can be
erased from EPROM.
4. If there is an error while writing on
EPROM, it can still be used again.
5. It provides more usability as instructions
are written many times.

What is cache memory?

A cache (pronounced cash) is a small and very fast memory. It is designed to speed up the
transfer of data and instructions. It is faster than RAM. The data and instructions that are most
recently or most frequently used by CPU are stored in cache memory.

The data and instructions is stored in cache. The next time the CPU needs that data or
instructions, it first looks in cache. It the required data is found there, it is retrieved from cache
memory instead of main memory. It speeds up the working CPU.

What is bus interconnection? Explain different types of buses.

A computer system consists of different devices such as CPU, main memory and I/O devices.
These devices are connected to an internal communication channel of the computer system to
transfer data between these devices. the internal communication channel of the computer system
is called bus interconnection.

Computer bus

A bus consists of set of parallel lines. It is used to transfer data between different components of
the computer. One line of bus can transfer bit at a time.

The capacity of computer bus depends on the number of data lines in it. A bus with 16 lines can
carry 16 bits or 2 bytes of data at a time. A bus with 32 lines can carry 32 bits or 4 bytes of data
at a time. The amount of data that a bus can be carry at one time is called bus width.

Types of buses
Different types of buses as follows:

1. system buses

System buses are used to connect the components of computer such as CPU and main memory.
System buses part of motherboard. Computes normally have system bus of 70-100 lines.
Different types of system buses are as follows:

1 Data Buses, 2 Address Bus, 3 Control Bus

2. Expansion Buses

Expansion bus is used to connect CPU with peripheral devices such as mouse, keyboard printer,
modem and scanner etc.

Control unit
A control unit or CU is circuitry that directs operations within a computer's processor. It lets the
computer's logic unit, memory, as well as both input and output devices know how to respond to
instructions received from a program. Examples of devices that utilize control units include
CPUs and GPUs.

A control unit works by receiving input information that it converts into control signals, which
are then sent to the central processor. The computer's processor then tells the attached hardware
what operations to carry out. The functions that a control unit performs are dependent on the type
of CPU, due to the variance of architecture between different manufacturers. The following
diagram illustrates how instructions from a program are processed.
Computer data storage
Computer data storage, often called storage or memory, 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.[1]

The central processing unit (CPU) of a computer is what manipulates data by performing
computations. In practice, almost all computers use a storage hierarchy, which puts fast but
expensive and small storage options close to the CPU and slower but larger and cheaper options
farther away. Generally the fast volatile technologies (which lose data when off power) are
referred to as "memory", while slower persistent technologies are referred to as "storage";
however, "memory" is sometimes also used when referring to persistent storage.

In the Von Neumann architecture, the CPU consists of two main parts: The control unit and the
arithmetic / logic unit (ALU). The former controls the flow of data between the CPU and
memory, while the latter performs arithmetic and logical operations on data.

Functionality
Without a significant amount of memory, a computer would merely be able to perform fixed
operations and immediately output the result. It would have to be reconfigured to change its
behavior. This is acceptable for devices such as desk calculators, digital signal processors, and
other specialized devices. Von Neumann machines differ in having a memory in which they store
their operating instructions and data.[2] Such computers are more versatile in that they do not
need to have their hardware reconfigured for each new program, but can simply be
reprogrammed with new in-memory instructions; they also tend to be simpler to design, in that a
relatively simple processor may keep state between successive computations to build up complex
procedural results. Most modern computers are von Neumann machines.

Data organization and representation

A modern digital computer represents data using the binary numeral system. Text, numbers,
pictures, audio, and nearly any other form of information can be converted into a string of bits, or
binary digits, each of which has a value of 1 or 0. The most common unit of storage is the byte,
equal to 8 bits. A piece of information can be handled by any computer or device whose storage
space is large enough to accommodate the binary representation of the piece of information, or
simply data. For example, the complete works of Shakespeare, about 1250 pages in print, can be
stored in about five megabytes (40 million bits) with one byte per character.

Data is encoded by assigning a bit pattern to each character, digit, or multimedia object. Many
standards exist for encoding (e.g., character encodings like ASCII, image encodings like JPEG,
video encodings like MPEG-4).

By adding bits to each encoded unit, redundancy allows the computer to both detect errors in
coded data and correct them based on mathematical algorithms. Errors generally occur in low
probabilities due to random bit value flipping, or "physical bit fatigue", loss of the physical bit in
storage its ability to maintain distinguishable value (0 or 1), or due to errors in inter or intra-
computer communication. A random bit flip (e.g., due to random radiation) is typically corrected
upon detection. A bit, or a group of malfunctioning physical bits (not always the specific
defective bit is known; group definition depends on specific storage device) is typically
automatically fenced-out, taken out of use by the device, and replaced with another functioning
equivalent group in the device, where the corrected bit values are restored (if possible). The
cyclic redundancy check (CRC) method is typically used in communications and storage for
error detection. A detected error is then retried.

Data compression methods allow in many cases (such as a database) to represent a string of bits
by a shorter bit string ("compress") and reconstruct the original string ("decompress") when
needed. This utilizes substantially less storage (tens of percents) for many types of data at the
cost of more computation (compress and decompress when needed). Analysis of trade-off
between storage cost saving and costs of related computations and possible delays in data
availability is done before deciding whether to keep certain data compressed or not.

For security reasons certain types of data (e.g., credit-card information) may be kept encrypted in
storage to prevent the possibility of unauthorized information reconstruction from chunks of
storage snapshots.

Hierarchy of storage
Main article: Memory hierarchy

This article appears to contradict the article Memory hierarchy. Please

see discussion on the linked talk page. (March 2013) (Learn how and when to
remove this template message)
Various forms of storage, divided according to their distance from the central
processing unit. The fundamental components of a general-purpose computer are
arithmetic and logic unit, control circuitry, storage space, and input/output devices.
Technology and capacity as in common home computers around 2005.

Generally, the lower a storage is in the hierarchy, the lesser its bandwidth and the greater its
access latency is from the CPU. This traditional division of storage to primary, secondary,
tertiary and off-line storage is also guided by cost per bit.

In contemporary usage, "memory" is usually semiconductor storage read-write random-access

memory, typically DRAM (dynamic RAM) or other forms of fast but temporary storage.
"Storage" consists of storage devices and their media not directly accessible by the CPU
(secondary or tertiary storage), typically hard disk drives, optical disc drives, and other devices
slower than RAM but non-volatile (retaining contents when powered down).[3]

Historically, memory has been called core memory, main memory, real storage or internal
memory. Meanwhile, non-volatile storage devices have been referred to as secondary storage,
external memory or auxiliary/peripheral storage.
Primary storage
Main article: Computer memory

Primary storage (also known as main memory or internal memory), often referred to simply as
memory, is the only one directly accessible to the CPU. The CPU continuously reads instructions
stored there and executes them as required. Any data actively operated on is also stored there in
uniform manner.

Historically, early computers used delay lines, Williams tubes, or rotating magnetic drums as
primary storage. By 1954, those unreliable methods were mostly replaced by magnetic core
memory. Core memory remained dominant until the 1970s, when advances in integrated circuit
technology allowed semiconductor memory to become economically competitive.

This led to modern random-access memory (RAM). It is small-sized, light, but quite expensive at
the same time. (The particular types of RAM used for primary storage are also volatile, i.e. they
lose the information when not powered).

As shown in the diagram, traditionally there are two more sub-layers of the primary storage,
besides main large-capacity RAM:

Processor registers are located inside the processor. Each register typically
holds a word of data (often 32 or 64 bits). CPU instructions instruct the
arithmetic logic unit to perform various calculations or other operations on
this data (or with the help of it). Registers are the fastest of all forms of
computer data storage.

Processor cache is an intermediate stage between ultra-fast registers and

much slower main memory. It was introduced solely to improve the
performance of computers. Most actively used information in the main
memory is just duplicated in the cache memory, which is faster, but of much
lesser capacity. On the other hand, main memory is much slower, but has a
much greater storage capacity than processor registers. Multi-level
hierarchical cache setup is also commonly usedprimary cache being
smallest, fastest and located inside the processor; secondary cache being
somewhat larger and slower.

Main memory is directly or indirectly connected to the central processing unit via a memory bus.
It is actually two buses (not on the diagram): an address bus and a data bus. The CPU firstly
sends a number through an address bus, a number called memory address, that indicates the
desired location of data. Then it reads or writes the data in the memory cells using the data bus.
Additionally, a memory management unit (MMU) is a small device between CPU and RAM
recalculating the actual memory address, for example to provide an abstraction of virtual
memory or other tasks.

As the RAM types used for primary storage are volatile (uninitialized at start up), a computer
containing only such storage would not have a source to read instructions from, in order to start
the computer. Hence, non-volatile primary storage containing a small startup program (BIOS) is
used to bootstrap the computer, that is, to read a larger program from non-volatile secondary
storage to RAM and start to execute it. A non-volatile technology used for this purpose is called
ROM, for read-only memory (the terminology may be somewhat confusing as most ROM types
are also capable of random access).

Many types of "ROM" are not literally read only, as updates to them are possible; however it is
slow and memory must be erased in large portions before it can be re-written. Some embedded
systems run programs directly from ROM (or similar), because such programs are rarely
changed. Standard computers do not store non-rudimentary programs in ROM, and rather, use
large capacities of secondary storage, which is non-volatile as well, and not as costly.

Recently, primary storage and secondary storage in some uses refer to what was historically
called, respectively, secondary storage and tertiary storage.[4]

Secondary storage

A hard disk drive with protective cover removed.

Main article: Auxiliary memory

Secondary storage (also known as external memory or auxiliary storage), differs from primary
storage in that it is not directly accessible by the CPU. The computer usually uses its input/output
channels to access secondary storage and transfers the desired data using intermediate area in
primary storage. Secondary storage does not lose the data when the device is powered downit
is non-volatile. Per unit, it is typically also two orders of magnitude less expensive than primary
storage. Modern computer systems typically have two orders of magnitude more secondary
storage than primary storage and data are kept for a longer time there.

In modern computers, hard disk drives are usually used as secondary storage. The time taken to
access a given byte of information stored on a hard disk is typically a few thousandths of a
second, or milliseconds. By contrast, the time taken to access a given byte of information stored
in random-access memory is measured in billionths of a second, or nanoseconds. This illustrates
the significant access-time difference which distinguishes solid-state memory from rotating
magnetic storage devices: hard disks are typically about a million times slower than memory.
Rotating optical storage devices, such as CD and DVD drives, have even longer access times.
With disk drives, once the disk read/write head reaches the proper placement and the data of
interest rotates under it, subsequent data on the track are very fast to access. To reduce the seek
time and rotational latency, data are transferred to and from disks in large contiguous blocks.

When data reside on disk, blocking access to hide latency offers an opportunity to design
efficient external memory algorithms. Sequential or block access on disks is orders of magnitude
faster than random access, and many sophisticated paradigms have been developed to design
efficient algorithms based upon sequential and block access. Another way to reduce the I/O
bottleneck is to use multiple disks in parallel in order to increase the bandwidth between primary
and secondary memory.[5]

Some other examples of secondary storage technologies are flash memory (e.g. USB flash drives
or keys), floppy disks, magnetic tape, paper tape, punched cards, standalone RAM disks, and
Iomega Zip drives.

The secondary storage is often formatted according to a file system format, which provides the
abstraction necessary to organize data into files and directories, providing also additional
information (called metadata) describing the owner of a certain file, the access time, the access
permissions, and other information.

Most computer operating systems use the concept of virtual memory, allowing utilization of
more primary storage capacity than is physically available in the system. As the primary memory
fills up, the system moves the least-used chunks (pages) to secondary storage devices (to a swap
file or page file), retrieving them later when they are needed. As more of these retrievals from
slower secondary storage are necessary, the more the overall system performance is degraded.

Tertiary storage
See also: Nearline storage and Cloud storage
A large tape library, with tape cartridges placed on shelves in the front, and a
robotic arm moving in the back. Visible height of the library is about 180 cm.

Tertiary storage or tertiary memory[6] provides a third level of storage. Typically, it involves a
robotic mechanism which will mount (insert) and dismount removable mass storage media into a
storage device according to the system's demands; this data is often copied to secondary storage
before use. It is primarily used for archiving rarely accessed information since it is much slower
than secondary storage (e.g. 560 seconds vs. 110 milliseconds). This is primarily useful for
extraordinarily large data stores, accessed without human operators. Typical examples include
tape libraries and optical jukeboxes.

When a computer needs to read information from the tertiary storage, it will first consult a
catalog database to determine which tape or disc contains the information. Next, the computer
will instruct a robotic arm to fetch the medium and place it in a drive. When the computer has
finished reading the information, the robotic arm will return the medium to its place in the
library.

Tertiary storage is also known as nearline storage because it is "near to online". The formal
distinction between online, nearline, and offline storage is:[7]

Online storage is immediately available for I/O.

Nearline storage is not immediately available, but can be made online quickly
without human intervention.

Offline storage is not immediately available, and requires some human

intervention to become online.

For example, always-on spinning hard disk drives are online storage, while spinning drives that
spin down automatically, such as in massive arrays of idle disks (MAID), are nearline storage.
Removable media such as tape cartridges that can be automatically loaded, as in tape libraries,
are nearline storage, while tape cartridges that must be manually loaded are offline storage.

Off-line storage
Off-line storage is a computer data storage on a medium or a device that is not under the control
of a processing unit.[8] The medium is recorded, usually in a secondary or tertiary storage device,
and then physically removed or disconnected. It must be inserted or connected by a human
operator before a computer can access it again. Unlike tertiary storage, it cannot be accessed
without human interaction.

Off-line storage is used to transfer information, since the detached medium can be easily
physically transported. Additionally, in case a disaster, for example a fire, destroys the original
data, a medium in a remote location will probably be unaffected, enabling disaster recovery. Off-
line storage increases general information security, since it is physically inaccessible from a
computer, and data confidentiality or integrity cannot be affected by computer-based attack
techniques. Also, if the information stored for archival purposes is rarely accessed, off-line
storage is less expensive than tertiary storage.

In modern personal computers, most secondary and tertiary storage media are also used for off-
line storage. Optical discs and flash memory devices are most popular, and to much lesser extent
removable hard disk drives. In enterprise uses, magnetic tape is predominant. Older examples are
floppy disks, Zip disks, or punched cards.

Characteristics of storage

A 1GB DDR RAM module (detail)

Storage technologies at all levels of the storage hierarchy can be differentiated by evaluating
certain core characteristics as well as measuring characteristics specific to a particular
implementation. These core characteristics are volatility, mutability, accessibility, and
addressability. For any particular implementation of any storage technology, the characteristics
worth measuring are capacity and performance.

Volatility
Non-volatile memory retains the stored information even if not constantly supplied with electric
power.[9] It is suitable for long-term storage of information. Volatile memory requires constant
power to maintain the stored information. The fastest memory technologies are volatile ones,
although that is not a universal rule. Since the primary storage is required to be very fast, it
predominantly uses volatile memory.

Dynamic random-access memory is a form of volatile memory that also requires the stored
information to be periodically reread and rewritten, or refreshed, otherwise it would vanish.
Static random-access memory is a form of volatile memory similar to DRAM with the exception
that it never needs to be refreshed as long as power is applied; it loses its content when the power
supply is lost.

An uninterruptible power supply (UPS) can be used to give a computer a brief window of time to
move information from primary volatile storage into non-volatile storage before the batteries are
exhausted. Some systems, for example EMC Symmetrix, have integrated batteries that maintain
volatile storage for several minutes.

Mutability
Read/write storage or mutable storage
Allows information to be overwritten at any time. A computer without some
amount of read/write storage for primary storage purposes would be useless
for many tasks. Modern computers typically use read/write storage also for
secondary storage.
Read only storage
Retains the information stored at the time of manufacture, and write once
storage (Write Once Read Many) allows the information to be written only
once at some point after manufacture. These are called immutable storage.
Immutable storage is used for tertiary and off-line storage. Examples include
CD-ROM and CD-R.
Slow write, fast read storage
Read/write storage which allows information to be overwritten multiple times,
but with the write operation being much slower than the read operation.
Examples include CD-RW and swayne memory

Accessibility
Random access
Any location in storage can be accessed at any moment in approximately the
same amount of time. Such characteristic is well suited for primary and
secondary storage. Most semiconductor memories and disk drives provide
random access.
Sequential access
The accessing of pieces of information will be in a serial order, one after the
other; therefore the time to access a particular piece of information depends
upon which piece of information was last accessed. Such characteristic is
typical of off-line storage.

Addressability
Location-addressable
Each individually accessible unit of information in storage is selected with its
numerical memory address. In modern computers, location-addressable
storage usually limits to primary storage, accessed internally by computer
 programs, since location-addressability is very efficient, but burdensome for
humans.
File addressable
Information is divided into files of variable length, and a particular file is
selected with human-readable directory and file names. The underlying
device is still location-addressable, but the operating system of a computer
provides the file system abstraction to make the operation more
understandable. In modern computers, secondary, tertiary and off-line
storage use file systems.
Content-addressable
Each individually accessible unit of information is selected based on the basis
of (part of) the contents stored there. Content-addressable storage can be
implemented using software (computer program) or hardware (computer
device), with hardware being faster but more expensive option. Hardware
content addressable memory is often used in a computer's CPU cache.

Capacity
Raw capacity
The total amount of stored information that a storage device or medium can
hold. It is expressed as a quantity of bits or bytes (e.g. 10.4 megabytes).
Memory storage density
The compactness of stored information. It is the storage capacity of a
medium divided with a unit of length, area or volume (e.g. 1.2 megabytes per
square inch).

Performance
Latency
The time it takes to access a particular location in storage. The relevant unit
of measurement is typically nanosecond for primary storage, millisecond for
secondary storage, and second for tertiary storage. It may make sense to
separate read latency and write latency (especially for non-volatile
memory[9]) and in case of sequential access storage, minimum, maximum
and average latency.
Throughput
The rate at which information can be read from or written to the storage. In
computer data storage, throughput is usually expressed in terms of
megabytes per second (MB/s), though bit rate may also be used. As with
latency, read rate and write rate may need to be differentiated. Also
accessing media sequentially, as opposed to randomly, typically yields
maximum throughput.
Granularity
 The size of the largest "chunk" of data that can be efficiently accessed as a
single unit, e.g. without introducing additional latency.
Reliability
The probability of spontaneous bit value change under various conditions, or
overall failure rate.

Energy use

Storage devices that reduce fan usage, automatically shut-down during

inactivity, and low power hard drives can reduce energy consumption by 90
percent.[10]

2.5 inch hard disk drives often consume less power than larger ones. [11][12] Low
capacity solid-state drives have no moving parts and consume less power
than hard disks.[13][14][15] Also, memory may use more power than hard disks. [15]
Large caches, which are used to avoid hitting memory wall, may also
consume a large amount of power. [16]

Storage media
As of 2011, the most commonly used data storage technologies are semiconductor, magnetic, and
optical, while paper still sees some limited usage. Media is a common name for what actually
holds the data in the storage device. Some other fundamental storage technologies have also been
used in the past or are proposed for development.

Semiconductor
Semiconductor memory uses semiconductor-based integrated circuits to store information. A
semiconductor memory chip may contain millions of tiny transistors or capacitors. Both volatile
and non-volatile forms of semiconductor memory exist. In modern computers, primary storage
almost exclusively consists of dynamic volatile semiconductor memory or dynamic random-
access memory. Since the turn of the century, a type of non-volatile semiconductor memory
known as flash memory has steadily gained share as off-line storage for home computers. Non-
volatile semiconductor memory is also used for secondary storage in various advanced electronic
devices and specialized computers that are designed for them.

As early as 2006, notebook and desktop computer manufacturers started using flash-based solid-
state drives (SSDs) as default configuration options for the secondary storage either in addition
to or instead of the more traditional HDD.[17][18][19][20][21]

Magnetic storage uses different patterns of magnetization on a magnetically coated surface to

store information. Magnetic storage is non-volatile. The information is accessed using one or
more read/write heads which may contain one or more recording transducers. A read/write head
only covers a part of the surface so that the head or medium or both must be moved relative to
another in order to access data. In modern computers, magnetic storage will take these forms:

Magnetic disk
 o Floppy disk, used for off-line storage

o Hard disk drive, used for secondary storage

Magnetic tape, used for tertiary and off-line storage

Carousel memory (magnetic rolls)

In early computers, magnetic storage was also used as:

Primary storage in a form of magnetic memory, or core memory, core rope

memory, thin-film memory and/or twistor memory.

Tertiary (e.g. NCR CRAM) or off line storage in the form of magnetic cards.

Magnetic tape was then often used for secondary storage.

Optical storage, the typical optical disc, stores information in deformities on the surface of a
circular disc and reads this information by illuminating the surface with a laser diode and
observing the reflection. Optical disc storage is non-volatile. The deformities may be permanent
(read only media), formed once (write once media) or reversible (recordable or read/write
media). The following forms are currently in common use:[22]

CD, CD-ROM, DVD, BD-ROM: Read only storage, used for mass distribution of
digital information (music, video, computer programs)

CD-R, DVD-R, DVD+R, BD-R: Write once storage, used for tertiary and off-line
storage

CD-RW, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, DVD-RAM, BD-RE: Slow write, fast read storage,
used for tertiary and off-line storage

Ultra Density Optical or UDO is similar in capacity to BD-R or BD-RE and is

slow write, fast read storage used for tertiary and off-line storage.

Magneto-optical disc storage is optical disc storage where the magnetic state on a ferromagnetic
surface stores information. The information is read optically and written by combining magnetic
and optical methods. Magneto-optical disc storage is non-volatile, sequential access, slow write,
fast read storage used for tertiary and off-line storage.

3D optical data storage has also been proposed.

Light induced magnetization melting in magnetic photoconductors has also been proposed for
high-speed low-energy consumption magneto-optical storage.[23]
Paper data storage, typically in the form of paper tape or punched cards, has long been used to
store information for automatic processing, particularly before general-purpose computers
existed. Information was recorded by punching holes into the paper or cardboard medium and
was read mechanically (or later optically) to determine whether a particular location on the
medium was solid or contained a hole. A few technologies allow people to make marks on paper
that are easily read by machinethese are widely used for tabulating votes and grading
standardized tests. Barcodes made it possible for any object that was to be sold or transported to
have some computer readable information securely attached to it.

Other storage media or substrates

Vacuum tube memory
A Williams tube used a cathode ray tube, and a Selectron tube used a large
vacuum tube to store information. These primary storage devices were short-
lived in the market, since Williams tube was unreliable and the Selectron tube
was expensive.
Electro-acoustic memory
Delay line memory used sound waves in a substance such as mercury to
store information. Delay line memory was dynamic volatile, cycle sequential
read/write storage, and was used for primary storage.
Optical tape
is a medium for optical storage generally consisting of a long and narrow strip
of plastic onto which patterns can be written and from which the patterns can
be read back. It shares some technologies with cinema film stock and optical
discs, but is compatible with neither. The motivation behind developing this
technology was the possibility of far greater storage capacities than either
magnetic tape or optical discs.
Phase-change memory
uses different mechanical phases of Phase Change Material to store
information in an X-Y addressable matrix, and reads the information by
observing the varying electrical resistance of the material. Phase-change
memory would be non-volatile, random-access read/write storage, and might
be used for primary, secondary and off-line storage. Most rewritable and
many write once optical disks already use phase change material to store
information.
Holographic data storage
stores information optically inside crystals or photopolymers. Holographic
storage can utilize the whole volume of the storage medium, unlike optical
disc storage which is limited to a small number of surface layers. Holographic
storage would be non-volatile, sequential access, and either write once or
read/write storage. It might be used for secondary and off-line storage. See
Holographic Versatile Disc (HVD).
Molecular memory
stores information in polymer that can store electric charge. Molecular
memory might be especially suited for primary storage. The theoretical
storage capacity of molecular memory is 10 terabits per square inch. [24]
Magnetic photoconductors
store magnetic information which can be modified by low-light illumination. [23]

Related technologies
Redundancy
Main articles: Disk mirroring and RAID
See also: Storage replication

While a group of bits malfunction may be resolved by error detection and correction mechanisms
(see above), storage device malfunction requires different solutions. The following solutions are
commonly used and valid for most storage devices:

Device mirroring (replication) A common solution to the problem is

constantly maintaining an identical copy of device content on another device
(typically of a same type). The downside is that this doubles the storage, and
both devices (copies) need to be updated simultaneously with some
overhead and possibly some delays. The upside is possible concurrent read of
a same data group by two independent processes, which increases
performance. When one of the replicated devices is detected to be defective,
the other copy is still operational, and is being utilized to generate a new
copy on another device (usually available operational in a pool of stand-by
devices for this purpose).

Redundant array of independent disks (RAID) This method generalizes

the device mirroring above by allowing one device in a group of N devices to
fail and be replaced with the content restored (Device mirroring is RAID with
N=2). RAID groups of N=5 or N=6 are common. N>2 saves storage, when
comparing with N=2, at the cost of more processing during both regular
operation (with often reduced performance) and defective device
replacement.

Device mirroring and typical RAID are designed to handle a single device failure in the RAID
group of devices. However, if a second failure occurs before the RAID group is completely
repaired from the first failure, then data can be lost. The probability of a single failure is typically
small. Thus the probability of two failures in a same RAID group in time proximity is much
smaller (approximately the probability squared, i.e., multiplied by itself). If a database cannot
tolerate even such smaller probability of data loss, then the RAID group itself is replicated
(mirrored). In many cases such mirroring is done geographically remotely, in a different storage
array, to handle also recovery from disasters (see disaster recovery above).
Network connectivity
A secondary or tertiary storage may connect to a computer utilizing computer networks. This
concept does not pertain to the primary storage, which is shared between multiple processors to a
lesser degree.

Direct-attached storage (DAS) is a traditional mass storage, that does not use
any network. This is still a most popular approach. This retronym was coined
recently, together with NAS and SAN.

Network-attached storage (NAS) is mass storage attached to a computer

which another computer can access at file level over a local area network, a
private wide area network, or in the case of online file storage, over the
Internet. NAS is commonly associated with the NFS and CIFS/SMB protocols.

Storage area network (SAN) is a specialized network, that provides other

computers with storage capacity. The crucial difference between NAS and
SAN is the former presents and manages file systems to client computers,
whilst the latter provides access at block-addressing (raw) level, leaving it to
attaching systems to manage data or file systems within the provided
capacity. SAN is commonly associated with Fibre Channel networks.

Robotic storage
Large quantities of individual magnetic tapes, and optical or magneto-optical discs may be stored
in robotic tertiary storage devices. In tape storage field they are known as tape libraries, and in
optical storage field optical jukeboxes, or optical disk libraries per analogy. Smallest forms of
either technology containing just one drive device are referred to as autoloaders or autochangers.

Robotic-access storage devices may have a number of slots, each holding individual media, and
usually one or more picking robots that traverse the slots and load media to built-in drives. The
arrangement of the slots and picking devices affects performance. Important characteristics of
such storage are possible expansion options: adding slots, modules, drives, robots. Tape libraries
may have from 10 to more than 100,000 slots, and provide terabytes or petabytes of near-line
information. Optical jukeboxes are somewhat smaller solutions, up to 1,000 slots.

Robotic storage is used for backups, and for high-capacity archives in imaging, medical, and
video industries. Hierarchical storage management is a most known archiving strategy of
automatically migrating long-unused files from fast hard disk storage to libraries or jukeboxes. If
the files are needed, they are retrieved back to disk

Data type
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about data types in computer science and programming. For their use
in statistics, see statistical data type.
Not to be confused with Data structure.
Not to be confused with Abstract data type.

In computer science and computer programming, a data type or simply type is a classification of
data which tells the compiler or interpreter how the programmer intends to use the data. Most
programming languages support various types of data, for example: real, integer or Boolean. A
Data type provides a set of values from which an expression (i.e. variable, function ...) may take
its values. The type defines the operations that can be done on the data, the meaning of the data,
and the way values of that type can be stored.[1][2]

Overview
Data types are used within type systems, which offer various ways of defining, implementing
and using them. Different type systems ensure varying degrees of type safety.

Almost all programming languages explicitly include the notion of data type, though different
languages may use different terminology. Common data types include:

integers

booleans

characters

floating-point numbers

alphanumeric strings

For example, in the Java programming language, the "int" type represents the set of 32-bit
integers ranging in value from -2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647, as well as the operations that
can be performed on integers, such as addition, subtraction, and multiplication. Colors, on the
other hand, are represented by three bytes denoting the amounts each of red, green, and blue, and
one string representing that color's name; allowable operations include addition and subtraction,
but not multiplication.

Most programming languages also allow the programmer to define additional data types, usually
by combining multiple elements of other types and defining the valid operations of the new data
type. For example, a programmer might create a new data type named "complex number" that
would include real and imaginary parts. A data type also represents a constraint placed upon the
interpretation of data in a type system, describing representation, interpretation and structure of
values or objects stored in computer memory. The type system uses data type information to
check correctness of computer programs that access or manipulate the data.

Most data types in statistics have comparable types in computer programming, and vice versa, as
shown in the following table:
 Statistics Programming

real-valued (interval scale)

floating-point
real-valued (ratio scale)

count data (usually non-negative) integer

binary data Boolean

categorical data enumerated type

random vector list or array

random matrix two-dimensional array

random tree tree

Definition of a "type"
(Parnas, Shore & Weiss 1976) identified five definitions of a "type" that were usedsometimes
implicitlyin the literature. Types including behavior align more closely with object-oriented
models, whereas a structured programming model would tend to not include code, and are called
plain old data structures.

The five types are:

Syntactic
A type is a purely syntactic label associated with a variable when it is
declared. Such definitions of "type" do not give any semantic meaning to
types.[clarification needed]
Representation
A type is defined in terms of its composition of more primitive typesoften
machine types.
Representation and behaviour
A type is defined as its representation and a set of operators manipulating
these representations.
Value space
A type is a set of possible values which a variable can possess. Such
definitions make it possible to speak about (disjoint) unions or Cartesian
products of types.
Value space and behaviour
A type is a set of values which a variable can possess and a set of functions
that one can apply to these values.
The definition in terms of a representation was often done in imperative languages such as
ALGOL and Pascal, while the definition in terms of a value space and behaviour was used in
higher-level languages such as Simula and CLU.

Classes of data types

Primitive data types
Main article: Primitive data type
Machine data types
All data in computers based on digital electronics is represented as bits (alternatives 0 and 1) on
the lowest level. The smallest addressable unit of data is usually a group of bits called a byte
(usually an octet, which is 8 bits). The unit processed by machine code instructions is called a
word (as of 2011, typically 32 or 64 bits). Most instructions interpret the word as a binary
number, such that a 32-bit word can represent unsigned integer values from 0 to or signed integer
values from to . Because of two's complement, the machine language and machine doesn't need
to distinguish between these unsigned and signed data types for the most part.

There is a specific set[which?] of arithmetic instructions that use a different[clarification needed]

interpretation of the bits in word as a floating-point number.

Machine data types need to be exposed or made available in systems or low-level programming
languages, allowing fine-grained control over hardware. The C programming language, for
instance, supplies integer types of various widths, such as short and long. If a corresponding
native type does not exist on the target platform, the compiler will break them down into code
using types that do exist. For instance, if a 32-bit integer is requested on a 16 bit platform, the
compiler will tacitly treat it as an array of two 16 bit integers.

Several languages allow binary and hexadecimal literals, for convenient manipulation of
machine data.

In higher level programming, machine data types are often hidden or abstracted as an
implementation detail that would render code less portable if exposed. For instance, a generic
numeric type might be supplied instead of integers of some specific bit-width.

Boolean type
The Boolean type represents the values true and false. Although only two values are possible,
they are rarely implemented as a single binary digit for efficiency reasons. Many programming
languages do not have an explicit Boolean type, instead interpreting (for instance) 0 as false and
other values as true. Boolean data simply refers to the logical structure of how the language is
interpreted to the machine language. In this case a Boolean 0 refers to the logic False. True is
always a non zero,especially a one which is known as Boolean 1.

Numeric types
Such as:
 The integer data types, or "whole numbers". May be sub-typed according to
their ability to contain negative values (e.g. unsigned in C and C++). May also
have a small number of predefined subtypes (such as short and long in C/C+
+); or allow users to freely define subranges such as 1..12 (e.g. Pascal/Ada).

Floating point data types, usually represent values as high-precision

fractional values (rational numbers, mathematically), but are sometimes
misleadingly called reals (evocative of mathematical real numbers). They
usually have predefined limits on both their maximum values and their
precision. Output of these values are often represented in a decimal number
format.

Fixed point data types are convenient for representing monetary values. They
are often implemented internally as integers, leading to predefined limits.

Bignum or arbitrary precision numeric types lack predefined limits. They are
not primitive types, and are used sparingly for efficiency reasons.

Composite types
Main article: Composite type

Composite types are derived from more than one primitive type. This can be done in a number of
ways. The ways they are combined are called data structures. Composing a primitive type into a
compound type generally results in a new type, e.g. array-of-integer is a different type to integer.

An array stores a number of elements of the same type in a specific order.

They are accessed randomly using an integer to specify which element is
required (although the elements may be of almost any type). Arrays may be
fixed-length or expandable.

o A list is similar to an array, but its contents are strung together by a

series of references to the next element.

Record (also called tuple or struct) Records are among the simplest data
structures. A record is a value that contains other values, typically in fixed
number and sequence and typically indexed by names. The elements of
records are usually called fields or members.

Union. A union type definition will specify which of a number of permitted

primitive types may be stored in its instances, e.g. "float or long integer".
Contrast with a record, which could be defined to contain a float and an
integer; whereas, in a union, there is only one type allowed at a time.

o A tagged union (also called a variant, variant record, discriminated

union, or disjoint union) contains an additional field indicating its
current type, for enhanced type safety.

A set is an abstract data structure that can store certain values, without any
particular order, and no repeated values. Values themselves are not retrieved
 from sets, rather one tests a value for membership to obtain a boolean "in" or
"not in".

An object contains a number of data fields, like a record, and also a number
of subroutines for accessing or modifying them, called methods.

Many others are possible, but they tend to be further variations and compounds of the above.

Enumerations
Main article: Enumerated type

The enumerated type has distinct values, which can be compared and assigned, but which do not
necessarily have any particular concrete representation in the computer's memory; compilers and
interpreters can represent them arbitrarily. For example, the four suits in a deck of playing cards
may be four enumerators named CLUB, DIAMOND, HEART, SPADE, belonging to an
enumerated type named suit. If a variable V is declared having suit as its data type, one can
assign any of those four values to it. Some implementations allow programmers to assign integer
values to the enumeration values, or even treat them as type-equivalent to integers.

String and text types

Such as:

Alphanumeric character. A letter of the alphabet, digit, blank space,

punctuation mark, etc.

Alphanumeric strings, a sequence of characters. They are typically used to

represent words and text.

Character and string types can store sequences of characters from a character set such as ASCII.
Since most character sets include the digits, it is possible to have a numeric string, such as
"1234". However, many languages treat these as belonging to a different type to the numeric
value 1234.

Character and string types can have different subtypes according to the required character
"width". The original 7-bit wide ASCII was found to be limited, and superseded by 8 and 16-bit
sets, which can encode a wide variety of non-Latin alphabets (Hebrew, Chinese) and other
symbols. Strings may be either stretch-to-fit or of fixed size, even in the same programming
language. They may also be subtyped by their maximum size.

Note: strings are not primitive in all languages, for instance C: they may be composed from
arrays of characters.

Other types
Types can be based on, or derived from, the basic types explained above. In some languages,
such as C, functions have a type derived from the type of their return value.
Pointers and references
The main non-composite, derived type is the pointer, a data type whose value refers directly to
(or "points to") another value stored elsewhere in the computer memory using its address. It is a
primitive kind of reference. (In everyday terms, a page number in a book could be considered a
piece of data that refers to another one). Pointers are often stored in a format similar to an
integer; however, attempting to dereference or "look up" a pointer whose value was never a valid
memory address would cause a program to crash. To ameliorate this potential problem, pointers
are considered a separate type to the type of data they point to, even if the underlying
representation is the same.

Function types
Main article: Function type

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (October 2012)

Abstract data types

Main article: Abstract data type

Any type that does not specify an implementation is an abstract data type. For instance, a stack
(which is an abstract type) can be implemented as an array (a contiguous block of memory
containing multiple values), or as a linked list (a set of non-contiguous memory blocks linked by
pointers).

Abstract types can be handled by code that does not know or "care" what underlying types are
contained in them. Programming that is agnostic about concrete data types is called generic
programming. Arrays and records can also contain underlying types, but are considered concrete
because they specify how their contents or elements are laid out in memory.

Examples include:

A queue is a first-in first-out list. Variations are Deque and Priority queue.

A set can store certain values, without any particular order, and with no
repeated values.

A stack is a last-in, first out data structure.

A tree is a hierarchical structure.

A graph.

A hash, dictionary, map or associative array is a more flexible variation on a

record, in which name-value pairs can be added and deleted freely.

A smart pointer is the abstract counterpart to a pointer. Both are kinds of

references.
Utility types
For convenience, high-level languages may supply ready-made "real world" data types, for
instance times, dates and monetary values and memory, even where the language allows them to
be built from primitive types.

Type systems
Main article: Type system

A type system associates types with each computed value. By examining the flow of these
values, a type system attempts to prove that no type errors can occur. The type system in
question determines what constitutes a type error, but a type system generally seeks to guarantee
that operations expecting a certain kind of value are not used with values for which that
operation does not make sense.

A compiler may use the static type of a value to optimize the storage it needs and the choice of
algorithms for operations on the value. In many C compilers the float data type, for example, is
represented in 32 bits, in accord with the IEEE specification for single-precision floating point
numbers. They will thus use floating-point-specific microprocessor operations on those values
(floating-point addition, multiplication, etc.).

The depth of type constraints and the manner of their evaluation affect the typing of the
language. A programming language may further associate an operation with varying concrete
algorithms on each type in the case of type polymorphism. Type theory is the study of type
systems, although the concrete type systems of programming languages originate from practical
issues of computer architecture, compiler implementation, and language design.

Type systems may be variously static or dynamic, strong or weak typing, and so forth.

The differences between analog and digital computers are as follows:

Digital Computers
Analog Computers
 Analog Computers Work on Digital computers Work on
1 continuous values. discrete values.

Analog Computers have low Digital computers have a very

2 memory. large memory

Analog computers have Slow

Digital computers have fast speed.
3 speed.

Analog computers are less Digital computers are more

4 reliable. reliable.

Analog computers used in

Digital computers are used in all
engineering and science and
5 fields of life.
medical fields.

Digital computers are used to

Analog computers are used to
calculate / measure analog
6 quantities like speed and
temperature.
calculate mathematical and logical
operations. It can solve addition,
subtraction, division, multiplication
and other mathematical and
statistical operations.

Analog computers provide less Digital computers provide 100%

7 accurate results. accurate results.

Normally Analog Computers are Digital Computers are general

8
specific purpose purpose

Analog computers are difficult to

9 Digital computers are easy to use
use

Examples of Analog computers Examples of digital computers are:

10 are: thermometer, analog clock, Personal Computer, laptops, smart
speedometer etc. phones etc.

Below, we share 10 things about the ENIAC that you really ought to know.

1. The ENIAC was the first computer built to take full advantage of electronic
processing speeds and to think for itself using conditional branching and nested
subroutines. It was entirely electronic and is credited with introducing the modern,
computer industry. Not bad, Philly. Not bad.
 2. The ENIAC was first made public on Friday, Feb. 15, 1946, not, as others have
suggested, on Feb. 14, as confirmed by Philly Mag. (The press release was distributed
Feb. 14, as noted on WHYYs Radio Times.)

3. The ENIAC vision is largely credited to physicist John Mauchly and young engineer
J. Presper Eckert, through U.S. Army experimental funding. Heres more oral history on
that.

4. The ENIAC belongs to the Smithsonian, though small pieces are on loan at the
University of Pennsylvania, in Minnesota and elsewhere. More info.

5. Mauchly and Eckert, went on to create UNIVAC, the first programmable computer
designed for business applications. More info.

6. Originally designed for the production of ballistic tables for World War II, the
machine was not completed until after the war ended. It was widely used for scientific
computation until the early 1950s. More info.

7. Who gets credit? With the advent of everyday use of elaborate calculations, speed has
become paramount to such a high degree that there is no machine on the market today
capable of satisfying the full demand of modern computational methods. From the
ENIAC patent (U.S.#3,120,606) filed on June 26, 1947. The patent was later invalidating
by a legal rebuke.

8. By the numbers: The ENIAC contained 17,468 vacuum tubes, along with 70,000
resistors, 10,000 capacitors, 1,500 relays, 6,000 manual switches and 5 million soldered
joints. It covered 1,800 square feet (167 square meters) of floor space, weighed 30 tons,
consumed 160 kilowatts of electrical power. More info. ENIAC could hold 20 10-digit
numbers, and you could park a school bus inside it. More info.

9. A quick end: By March 1947, a new electronic super calculator was touted as capable
of making the Armys world-famed ENIAC look like a dunce. A series of variations, like
the BINIAC followed. At 11:45 p.m., Oct. 2, 1955, with the power finally shut off, the
ENIAC retired.

10. A group of female computers was instrumental in building the ENIAC and a
documentary focused on their role in the broader World War II fight.

Printer (computing).
In computing, a printer is a peripheral which makes a persistent human-readable representation
of graphics or text on paper or similar physical media.[1] The world's first computer printer was a
19th-century mechanically driven apparatus invented by Charles Babbage for his difference
engine.[2] The first commercial printers generally used mechanisms from electric typewriters and
Teletype machines The demand for higher speed led to the development of new systems
specifically for computer use. In the 1980s were daisy wheel systems similar to typewriters, line
printers that produced similar output but at much higher speed, and dot matrix systems that could
mix text and graphics but produced relatively low-quality output. The plotter was used for those
requiring high quality line art like blueprints.

The introduction of the low-cost laser printer in 1984 with the first HP LaserJet, and the addition
of PostScript in next year's Apple LaserWriter, set off a revolution in printing known as desktop
publishing. Laser printers using PostScript mixed text and graphics, like dot-matrix printers, but
at quality levels formerly available only from commercial typesetting systems. By 1990, most
simple printing tasks like fliers and brochures were now created on personal computers and then
laser printed; expensive offset printing systems were being dumped as scrap. The HP Deskjet of
1988 offered the same advantages as laser printer in terms of flexibility, but produced somewhat
lower quality output (depending on the paper) from much less expensive mechanisms. Inkjet
systems rapidly displaced dot matrix and daisy wheel printers from the market. By the 2000s
high-quality printers of this sort had fallen under the $100 price point and became commonplace.

The rapid update of internet email through the 1990s and into the 2000s has largely displaced the
need for printing as a means of moving documents, and a wide variety of reliable storage
systems means that a "physical backup" is of little benefit today. Even the desire for printed
output for "offline reading" while on mass transit or aircraft has been displaced by e-book
readers and tablet computers. Today, traditional printers are being used more for special
purposes, like printing photographs or artwork, and are no longer a must-have peripheral.

Starting around 2010, 3D printing became an area of intense interest, allowing the creation of
physical objects with the same sort of effort as an early laser printer required to produce a
brochure. These devices are in their earliest stages of development and have not yet become
commonplace.

Types of printers
Personal printers are primarily designed to support individual users, and may be connected to
only a single computer. These printers are designed for low-volume, short-turnaround print jobs,
requiring minimal setup time to produce a hard copy of a given document. However, they are
generally slow devices ranging from 6 to around 25 pages per minute (ppm), and the cost per
page is relatively high. However, this is offset by the on-demand convenience. Some printers can
print documents stored on memory cards or from digital cameras and scanners.

Networked or shared printers are "designed for high-volume, high-speed printing." They are
usually shared by many users on a network and can print at speeds of 45 to around 100 ppm.[3]
The Xerox 9700 could achieve 120 ppm.

A virtual printer is a piece of computer software whose user interface and API resembles that of
a printer driver, but which is not connected with a physical computer printer. A virtual printer can
be used to create a file which is an image of the data which would be printed, for archival
purposes or as input to another program, for example to create a PDF or to transmit to another
system or user.
A 3D printer is a device for making a three-dimensional object from a 3D model or other
electronic data source through additive processes in which successive layers of material
( including plastics, metals, food, cement, wood, and other materials) are laid down under
computer control. It is called a printer by analogy with an inkjet printer which produces a two-
dimensional document by a similar process of depositing a layer of ink on paper.

Technology
The choice of print technology has a great effect on the cost of the printer and cost of operation,
speed, quality and permanence of documents, and noise. Some printer technologies don't work
with certain types of physical media, such as carbon paper or transparencies.

A second aspect of printer technology that is often forgotten is resistance to alteration: liquid ink,
such as from an inkjet head or fabric ribbon, becomes absorbed by the paper fibers, so
documents printed with liquid ink are more difficult to alter than documents printed with toner or
solid inks, which do not penetrate below the paper surface.

Cheques can be printed with liquid ink or on special cheque paper with toner anchorage so that
alterations may be detected.[4] The machine-readable lower portion of a cheque must be printed
using MICR toner or ink. Banks and other clearing houses employ automation equipment that
relies on the magnetic flux from these specially printed characters to function properly.

Modern print technology

The following printing technologies are routinely found in modern printers:

Toner-based printers
Main article: Laser printer

A laser printer rapidly produces high quality text and graphics. As with digital photocopiers and
multifunction printers (MFPs), laser printers employ a xerographic printing process but differ
from analog photocopiers in that the image is produced by the direct scanning of a laser beam
across the printer's photoreceptor.

Another toner-based printer is the LED printer which uses an array of LEDs instead of a laser to
cause toner adhesion to the print drum.

Liquid inkjet printers

Liquid ink cartridge from Hewlett-Packard HP 845C inkjet printer

Inkjet printers operate by propelling variably sized droplets of liquid ink onto almost any sized
page. They are the most common type of computer printer used by consumers.

Solid ink printers

Main article: Solid ink

Solid ink printers, also known as phase-change printers, are a type of thermal transfer printer.
They use solid sticks of CMYK-coloured ink, similar in consistency to candle wax, which are
melted and fed into a piezo crystal operated print-head. The printhead sprays the ink on a
rotating, oil coated drum. The paper then passes over the print drum, at which time the image is
immediately transferred, or transfixed, to the page. Solid ink printers are most commonly used as
colour office printers, and are excellent at printing on transparencies and other non-porous
media. Solid ink printers can produce excellent results. Acquisition and operating costs are
similar to laser printers. Drawbacks of the technology include high energy consumption and long
warm-up times from a cold state. Also, some users complain that the resulting prints are difficult
to write on, as the wax tends to repel inks from pens, and are difficult to feed through automatic
document feeders, but these traits have been significantly reduced in later models. In addition,
this type of printer is only available from one manufacturer, Xerox, manufactured as part of their
Xerox Phaser office printer line. Previously, solid ink printers were manufactured by Tektronix,
but Tek sold the printing business to Xerox in 2001.

Dye-sublimation printers
Main article: Dye-sublimation printer

A disassembled dye sublimation cartridge.

A dye-sublimation printer (or dye-sub printer) is a printer which employs a printing process that
uses heat to transfer dye to a medium such as a plastic card, paper or canvas. The process is
usually to lay one colour at a time using a ribbon that has colour panels. Dye-sub printers are
intended primarily for high-quality colour applications, including colour photography; and are
less well-suited for text. While once the province of high-end print shops, dye-sublimation
printers are now increasingly used as dedicated consumer photo printers.
Thermal printers

Receipt printer printing a Twitter timeline

Thermal printers work by selectively heating regions of special heat-sensitive paper.

Monochrome thermal printers are used in cash registers, ATMs, gasoline dispensers and some
older inexpensive fax machines. Colours can be achieved with special papers and different
temperatures and heating rates for different colours; these coloured sheets are not required in
black-and-white output. One example is Zink (a portmanteau of "zero ink").[5]

Obsolete and special-purpose printing technologies

Epson MX-80, a popular model of dot-matrix printer in use for many years

The following technologies are either obsolete, or limited to special applications though most
were, at one time, in widespread use.

Impact printers
Impact printers rely on a forcible impact to transfer ink to the media. The impact printer uses a
print head that either hits the surface of the ink ribbon, pressing the ink ribbon against the paper
(similar to the action of a typewriter), or, less commonly, hits the back of the paper, pressing the
paper against the ink ribbon (the IBM 1403 for example). All but the dot matrix printer rely on
the use of fully formed characters, letterforms that represent each of the characters that the
printer was capable of printing. In addition, most of these printers were limited to monochrome,
or sometimes two-color, printing in a single typeface at one time, although bolding and
underlining of text could be done by "overstriking", that is, printing two or more impressions
either in the same character position or slightly offset. Impact printers varieties include
typewriter-derived printers, teletypewriter-derived printers, daisywheel printers, dot matrix
printers and line printers. Dot matrix printers remain in common use in businesses where multi-
part forms are printed. An overview of impact printing[6] contains a detailed description of many
of the technologies used.
Typewriter-derived printers

typeball print element from IBM Selectric-type printer

Main articles: Friden Flexowriter and IBM Selectric typewriter

Several different computer printers were simply computer-controllable versions of existing

electric typewriters. The Friden Flexowriter and IBM Selectric-based printers were the most-
common examples. The Flexowriter printed with a conventional typebar mechanism while the
Selectric used IBM's well-known "golf ball" printing mechanism. In either case, the letter form
then struck a ribbon which was pressed against the paper, printing one character at a time. The
maximum speed of the Selectric printer (the faster of the two) was 15.5 characters per second.

Teletypewriter-derived printers
Main article: Teleprinter

The common teleprinter could easily be interfaced to the computer and became very popular
except for those computers manufactured by IBM. Some models used a "typebox" that was
positioned, in the X- and Y-axes, by a mechanism and the selected letter form was struck by a
hammer. Others used a type cylinder in a similar way as the Selectric typewriters used their type
ball. In either case, the letter form then struck a ribbon to print the letterform. Most teleprinters
operated at ten characters per second although a few achieved 15 CPS.

Daisy wheel printers

"daisy wheel" print element
Main article: Daisy wheel printer

Daisy wheel printers operate in much the same fashion as a typewriter. A hammer strikes a wheel
with petals, the "daisy wheel", each petal containing a letter form at its tip. The letter form strikes
a ribbon of ink, depositing the ink on the page and thus printing a character. By rotating the daisy
wheel, different characters are selected for printing. These printers were also referred to as letter-
quality printers because they could produce text which was as clear and crisp as a typewriter.
The fastest letter-quality printers printed at 30 characters per second.

Dot-matrix printers
Main article: Dot matrix printer

sample output from 9-pin dot matrix printer (one character expanded to show
detail)

The term dot matrix printer is used for impact printers that use a matrix of small pins to transfer
ink to the page. The advantage of dot matrix over other impact printers is that they can produce
graphical images in addition to text; however the text is generally of poorer quality than impact
printers that use letterforms (type).

Dot-matrix printers can be broadly divided into two major classes:

Ballistic wire printers

Stored energy printers

Dot matrix printers can either be character-based or line-based (that is, a single horizontal series
of pixels across the page), referring to the configuration of the print head.
In the 1970s & 80s, dot matrix printers were one of the more common types of printers used for
general use, such as for home and small office use. Such printers normally had either 9 or 24 pins
on the print head (early 7 pin printers also existed, which did not print descenders). There was a
period during the early home computer era when a range of printers were manufactured under
many brands such as the Commodore VIC-1525 using the Seikosha Uni-Hammer system. This
used a single solenoid with an oblique striker that would be actuated 7 times for each column of
7 vertical pixels while the head was moving at a constant speed. The angle of the striker would
align the dots vertically even though the head had moved one dot spacing in the time. The
vertical dot position was controlled by a synchronised longitudinally ribbed platen behind the
paper that rotated rapidly with a rib moving vertically seven dot spacings in the time it took to
print one pixel column.[7][8] 24-pin print heads were able to print at a higher quality and started to
offer additional type styles and were marketed as Near Letter Quality by some vendors. Once the
price of inkjet printers dropped to the point where they were competitive with dot matrix
printers, dot matrix printers began to fall out of favour for general use.

Some dot matrix printers, such as the NEC P6300, can be upgraded to print in colour. This is
achieved through the use of a four-colour ribbon mounted on a mechanism (provided in an
upgrade kit that replaces the standard black ribbon mechanism after installation) that raises and
lowers the ribbons as needed. Colour graphics are generally printed in four passes at standard
resolution, thus slowing down printing considerably. As a result, colour graphics can take up to
four times longer to print than standard monochrome graphics, or up to 8-16 times as long at
high resolution mode.

Dot matrix printers are still commonly used in low-cost, low-quality applications such as cash
registers, or in demanding, very high volume applications like invoice printing. Impact printing,
unlike laser printing, allows the pressure of the print head to be applied to a stack of two or more
forms to print multi-part documents such as sales invoices and credit card receipts using
continuous stationery with carbonless copy paper. Dot-matrix printers were being superseded
even as receipt printers after the end of the twentieth century.

Line printers
Main article: Line printer

Line printers print an entire line of text at a time. Four principal designs exist.

Print drum from drum printer

 Drum printers, where a horizontally mounted rotating drum carries the entire
character set of the printer repeated in each printable character position. The
IBM 1132 printer is an example of a drum printer. Drum printers are also
found in adding machines and other numeric printers (POS), the dimensions
are compact as only a dozen characters need to be supported. [9]

IBM 1403 line printer

Chain or train printers, where the character set is arranged multiple times
around a linked chain or a set of character slugs in a track traveling
horizontally past the print line. The IBM 1403 is perhaps the most popular,
and comes in both chain and train varieties. The band printer is a later
variant where the characters are embossed on a flexible steel band. The LP27
from Digital Equipment Corporation is a band printer.

Bar printers, where the character set is attached to a solid bar that moves
horizontally along the print line, such as the IBM 1443.[10]

A fourth design, used mainly on very early printers such as the IBM 402,
features independent type bars, one for each printable position. Each bar
contains the character set to be printed. The bars moves vertically to position
the character to be printed in front of the print hammer. [11]

In each case, to print a line, precisely timed hammers strike against the back of the paper at the
exact moment that the correct character to be printed is passing in front of the paper. The paper
presses forward against a ribbon which then presses against the character form and the
impression of the character form is printed onto the paper.

Comb printers, also called line matrix printers, represent the fifth major
design. These printers are a hybrid of dot matrix printing and line printing. In
these printers, a comb of hammers prints a portion of a row of pixels at one
time, such as every eighth pixel. By shifting the comb back and forth slightly,
the entire pixel row can be printed, continuing the example, in just eight
cycles. The paper then advances and the next pixel row is printed. Because
far less motion is involved than in a conventional dot matrix printer, these
printers are very fast compared to dot matrix printers and are competitive in
 speed with formed-character line printers while also being able to print dot
matrix graphics. The Printronix P7000 series of line matrix printers are still
manufactured as of 2013.

Line printers are the fastest of all impact printers and are used for bulk printing in large computer
centres. A line printer can print at 1100 lines per minute or faster, frequently printing pages more
rapidly than many current laser printers. On the other hand, the mechanical components of line
printers operat with tight tolerances and require regular preventive maintenance (PM) to produce
top quality print. They are virtually never used with personal computers and have now been
replaced by high-speed laser printers. The legacy of line printers lives on in many computer
operating systems, which use the abbreviations "lp", "lpr", or "LPT" to refer to printers.

Liquid ink electrostatic printers

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Liquid ink electrostatic printers use a chemical coated paper, which is charged by the print head
according to the image of the document. The paper is passed near a pool of liquid ink with the
opposite charge. The charged areas of the paper attract the ink and thus form the image. This
process was developed from the process of electrostatic copying.[12] Color reproduction is very
accurate, and because there is no heating the scale distortion is less than 0.1%. (All laser
printers have an accuracy of 1%.)

Worldwide, most survey offices used this printer before color inkjet plotters become popular.
Liquid ink electrostatic printers were mostly available in 36 to 54 inches (910 to 1,370 mm)
width and also 6 color printing. These were also used to print large billboards. It was first
introduced by Versatec, which was later bought by Xerox. 3M also used to make these printers.
[13]

Plotters
Main article: Plotter

A Calcomp 565 drum plotter.

Pen-based plotters were an alternate printing technology once common in engineering and
architectural firms. Pen-based plotters rely on contact with the paper (but not impact, per se) and
special purpose pens that are mechanically run over the paper to create text and images. Since
the pens output continuous lines, they were able to produce technical drawings of higher
resolution than was achievable with dot-matrix technology.[14] Some plotters used roll-fed paper,
and therefore had minimal restriction on the size of the output in one dimension. These plotters
were capable of producing quite sizable drawings.

Other printers
A number of other sorts of printers are important for historical reasons, or for special purpose
uses:

Digital minilab (photographic paper)

Electrolytic printers

Spark printer

Barcode printer multiple technologies, including: thermal printing, inkjet

printing, and laser printing barcodes

Billboard / sign paint spray printers

Laser etching (product packaging) industrial printers

Microsphere (special paper)

Attributes
Printer control languages
Most printers other than line printers accept control characters or unique character sequences to
control various printer functions. These may range from shifting from lower to upper case or
from black to red ribbon on typewriter printers to switching fonts and changing character sizes
and colors on raster printers. Early printer controls were not standardized, with each
manufacturer's equipment having its own set. The IBM Personal Printer Data Stream (PPDS)
became a commonly used command set for dot-matrix printers.

Today, most printers accept one or more page description languages (PDLs). Laser printers with
greater processing power frequently offer support for variants of Hewlett-Packard's Printer
Command Language (PCL), PostScript or XML Paper Specification. Most inkjet devices support
manufacturer proprietary PDLs such as ESC/P. The diversity in mobile platforms have led to
various standardization efforts around device PDLs such as the Printer Working Group (PWG's)
PWG Raster.

Printing speed
The speed of early printers was measured in units of characters per minute (cpm) for character
printers, or lines per minute (lpm) for line printers. Modern printers are measured in pages per
minute (ppm). These measures are used primarily as a marketing tool, and are not as well
standardised as toner yields. Usually pages per minute refers to sparse monochrome office
documents, rather than dense pictures which usually print much more slowly, especially colour
images. PPM are most of the time referring to A4 paper in Europe and letter paper in the United
States, resulting in a 5-10% difference.

Printing mode
The data received by a printer may be:

A string of characters

A bitmapped image

A vector image

A computer program written in a page description language, such as PCL or

PostScript

Some printers can process all four types of data, others not.

Character printers, such as daisy wheel printers, can handle only plain text
data or rather simple point plots.

Pen plotters typically process vector images. Inkjet based plotters can
adequately reproduce all four.

Modern printing technology, such as laser printers and inkjet printers, can
adequately reproduce all four. This is especially true of printers equipped with
support for PCL or PostScript, which includes the vast majority of printers
produced today.

Today it is possible to print everything (even plain text) by sending ready bitmapped images to
the printer. This allows better control over formatting, especially among machines from different
vendors. Many printer drivers do not use the text mode at all, even if the printer is capable of it.
[citation needed]

Monochrome, colour and photo printers

A monochrome printer can only produce an image consisting of one colour, usually black. A
monochrome printer may also be able to produce various tones of that color, such as a grey-scale.
A colour printer can produce images of multiple colours. A photo printer is a colour printer that
can produce images that mimic the colour range (gamut) and resolution of prints made from
photographic film. Many can be used on a standalone basis without a computer, using a memory
card or USB connector.
Page yield
The page yield is number of pages that can be printed from a toner cartridge or ink cartridge
before the cartridge needs to be refilled or replaced. The actual number of pages yielded by a
specific cartridge depends on a number of factors.[15]

For a fair comparison, many laser printer manufacturers use the ISO/IEC 19752 process to
measure the toner cartridge yield.[16][17][18]

Cost per page

In order to fairly compare operating expenses of printers with a relatively small ink cartridge to
printers with a larger, more expensive toner cartridge that typically holds more toner and so
prints more pages before the cartridge needs to be replaced, many people prefer to estimate
operating expenses in terms of cost per page (CPP).[16][17][19][20][21][22]

Business model
Often the "razor and blades" business model is applied. That is, a company may sell a printer at
cost, and make profits on the ink cartridge, paper, or some other replacement part. This has
caused legal disputes regarding the right of companies other than the printer manufacturer to sell
compatible ink cartridges. To protect their business model, several manufacturers invest heavily
in developing new cartridge technology and patenting it.

Other manufacturers, in reaction to the challenges from using this business model, choose to
make more money on printers and less on the ink, promoting the latter through their advertising
campaigns. Finally, this generates two clearly different proposals: "cheap printer expensive
ink" or "expensive printer cheap ink". Ultimately, the consumer decision depends on their
reference interest rate or their time preference. From an economics viewpoint, there is a clear
trade-off between cost per copy and cost of the printer.[23]

Printer steganography

An illustration showing small yellow tracking dots on white paper, generated by a

color laser printer
Main article: Printer steganography
Printer steganography is a type of steganography "hiding data within data"[24] produced by
color printers, including Brother, Canon, Dell, Epson, HP, IBM, Konica Minolta, Kyocera,
Lanier, Lexmark, Ricoh, Toshiba and Xerox[25] brand color laser printers, where tiny yellow dots
are added to each page. The dots are barely visible and contain encoded printer serial numbers,
as well as date and time stamps.

Wireless printers
Main article: Wireless printer

More than half of all printers sold at U.S. retail in 2010 were wireless-capable, but nearly three-
quarters of consumers who have access to those printers weren't taking advantage of the
increased access to print from multiple devices according to the new Wireless Printing Study.[26]

First Generation (1940-1956) Vacuum Tubes

The first computers used vacuum tubes for circuitry and magnetic drums for memory, and were
often enormous, taking up entire rooms. They were very expensive to operate and in addition to
using a great deal of electricity, the first computers generated a lot of heat, which was often the
cause of malfunctions.

First generation computers relied on machine language, the lowest-level programming language
understood by computers, to perform operations, and they could only solve one problem at a
time, and it could take days or weeks to set-up a new problem. Input was based on punched cards
and paper tape, and output was displayed on printouts.

The UNIVAC and ENIAC computers are examples of first-generation computing devices. The
UNIVAC was the first commercial computer delivered to a business client, the U.S. Census
Bureau in 1951.

A UNIVAC computer at the Census Bureau.

Image Source: United States Census Bureau
Recommended Reading: Webopedia's ENIAC definition. The ENIAC, was developed by Army
Ordnance to compute World War II ballistic firing tables. It weighed 30 tons and used 200
kilowatts of electric power.

Second Generation (1956-1963) Transistors

Transistors replace vacuum tubes and ushered in the second generation of computers. The
transistor was invented in 1947 but did not see widespread use in computers until the late 1950s.
The transistor was far superior to the vacuum tube, allowing computers to become smaller, faster,
cheaper, more energy-efficient and more reliable than their first-generation predecessors.

Though the transistor still generated a great deal of heat that subjected the computer to damage,
it was a vast improvement over the vacuum tube. Second-generation computers still relied on
punched cards for input and printouts for output.

Second-generation computers moved from cryptic binary machine language to symbolic, or

assembly, languages, which allowed programmers to specify instructions in words. High-level
programming languages were also being developed at this time, such as early versions of
COBOL and FORTRAN. These were also the first computers that stored their instructions in
their memory, which moved from a magnetic drum to magnetic core technology.

The first computers of this generation were developed for the atomic energy industry.

Third Generation (1964-1971) Integrated Circuits

The development of the integrated circuit was the hallmark of the third generation of computers.
Transistors were miniaturized and placed on silicon chips, called semiconductors, which
drastically increased the speed and efficiency of computers.

Instead of punched cards and printouts, users interacted with third generation computers through
keyboards and monitors and interfaced with an operating system, which allowed the device to
run many different applications at one time with a central program that monitored the memory.
Computers for the first time became accessible to a mass audience because they were smaller
and cheaper than their predecessors.

Fourth Generation (1971-Present) Microprocessors

The microprocessor brought the fourth generation of computers, as thousands of integrated
circuits were built onto a single silicon chip. What in the first generation filled an entire room
could now fit in the palm of the hand. The Intel 4004 chip, developed in 1971, located all the
components of the computerfrom the central processing unit and memory to input/output
controlson a single chip.

In 1981 IBM introduced its first computer for the home user, and in 1984 Apple introduced the
Macintosh. Microprocessors also moved out of the realm of desktop computers and into many
areas of life as more and more everyday products began to use microprocessors.
As these small computers became more powerful, they could be linked together to form
networks, which eventually led to the development of the Internet. Fourth generation computers
also saw the development of GUIs, the mouse and handheld devices.

Fifth Generation (Present and Beyond) Artificial Intelligence

Fifth generation computing devices, based on artificial intelligence, are still in development,
though there are some applications, such as voice recognition, that are being used today. The use
of parallel processing and superconductors is helping to make artificial intelligence a reality.
Quantum computation and molecular and nanotechnology will radically change the face of
computers in years to come. The goal of fifth-generation computing is to develop devices that
respond to natural language input and are capable of learning and self-organization.

Did You Know... ? An integrated circuit (IC) is a small electronic device made out of a
semiconductor material. The first integrated circuit was developed in the 1950s by Jack Kilby of
Texas Instruments and Robert Noyce of Fairchild Semiconductor.