Info Tech - IPCC Unit 1

IPCC Information Technology Unit -1
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Paper: 7A Information Technology Study Tips and Examination Technique The aim of this section is to provide general guidance as to how to study for your exams. The guidance given herein is supplementary to the manner of study followed by you and is intended to improve your existing technique, and aims to give ideas on how to improve your existing study techniques. However, it is essential that you adopt methods and techniques with which you feel comfortable. Passing exams is partly a matter of intellectual ability, however accomplished you are in that respect you can improve your chances significantly by the use of appropriate study and revision techniques. In this section, we briefly outline some tips for effective study during the earlier stages of preparation. Know Your Syllabus Go through the syllabus carefully The study material is divided in following six chapters/topics based on the syllabus. o Introduction to computer o Data storage, Retrieval and Data Base Management Systems. o Computer networks & Network security o Internet and other technologies o Introduction to flowcharting o Decision Table Understand the linkages between chapters at macro-level. Plan Your Study Make a study plan covering the entire syllabus and then decide how much time you can allocate to the subject on daily/weekly basis. Allocation of time must be done keeping in view your office commitments as well as social needs and personal hobbies. Maintain the time balance amongst various subjects such as purely descriptive type and numericalbased papers. Allocate time in such a manner that your interest is well sustained and you are able to score well in the final examination as well. Always assess your preparation periodically, say, on monthly basis. If necessary, revise your plan and allocate more time for the subjects in which you feel deficient.
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Prepare Study Strategy Read, understand and assimilate each chapter. First of all, have an overview of the chapter to understand the broad contents and sequence of various sub-topics. Do the introspection while going through the chapter and ask various questions to yourself. Read each chapter slowly to ensure that you understand and assimilate the main concept. If need be, read once again with concentration and then try to attempt exercises at the end of the chapter or given in the Practice Manual. Recapitulate the main concept after going through each chapter by way of brief notes. Prepare notes in the manner you feel comfortable covering all key points One may use highlighter/underlining the significant points or writing down in the margin. Your conceptual clarity of the topic will be reflected in your ability to attempt the questions given in the exercises as well as in the practice manual. Make a serious attempt at producing your own answers but at this stage do not be much concern about attempting the questions in examination based conditions. At initial stages, it is more important to understand and absorb the material thoroughly rather than to observe the time limits that would apply in the actual examination conditions. Always try to attempt the past year examination question papers under examination Conditions Revision of material should never be selective in any case. Broad coverage of the entire syllabus is more important than preparing 2-3 chapters exhaustively. Repeatedly read through the text along with your notes carefully. Try to remember the definition and important aspects of the related topics. Examination Technique Reach examination hall well in time. Plan your time so that equal time is awarded for each mark. Keep sometime for revision as well. Always attempt to do all questions. Remember that six average answers fetch more marks than five best answers. Therefore, it is important that you must finish each question within allocated time. Read the question carefully more than once before starting the answer to understand very clearly as to what is required by the paper-setter. Always be concise and write to the point and do not try to fill pages unnecessarily. In case a question is not clear, you may state your assumptions and then answer the question. While writing answers in respect of essay-type questions, try to make sub-headings so that it catches the examiners eye. In case of case-study, be very precise and write your conclusion in a clear manner. Revise your answers carefully and underline important points before leaving the examination hall. Wishing you all the Best
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Information Technology (50 Marks) 1) Introduction to Computers 2) Input and Output Devices 3) Computer Software 4) Data Storage, Retrieval and DBMS 5) Computer Networks & Network Security 6) Internet and Other technologies 7) Flow charts 8) Decision Tables Strategic Management (50 Marks) 1) Business Environment a) General Environment Demographic, Socio-cultural, Macro-economic, Legal/political b) Competitive Environment 2) Business Policy and Strategic Management Meaning and nature; Vision, Mission and Objectives; Strategic levels in organizations. 3) Strategic Analyses Situational Analysis SWOT Analysis, TOWS Matrix, Portfolio Analysis BCG Matrix. 4) Strategic Planning Meaning, stages, alternatives, strategy formulation 5) Formulation of Functional Strategy Marketing Strategy, Financial strategy, Production strategy, Logistics strategy, Human resource strategy. 6) Strategy Implementation and Control Organizational Structures; Establishing Strategic business units etc. 7) Reaching Strategy Edge Business process Reengineering, Benchmarking, TQM, Six Sigma etc.
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Chapter-1 Introduction to Computers Scope of this chapter: Generation of Computers and their evolution Classification of computers. Features of computers, their advantages and limitations Basic components of a computer system. Types of Storage devices, their use and capacity. Types of RAM and their working. 1.1 Historical Development of Computers The modern computer with the power and speed of today was not a solitary invention that sprang completed from the mind of a single individual. It is the end result of countless inventions, ideas, and developments contributed by many people throughout the last several decades. The history of the modern computer begins with two separate technologiesautomated calculation and programmability. An example of early mechanical calculating devices was abacus. The abacus was an early aid for mathematical computations. With abacus a person can work on addition and subtraction problems at the speed of a person equipped with a hand calculator (multiplication and division are slower). The device is capable to perform simple addition and subtraction rapidly and efficiently by positioning the ring on a wooden rack holding two horizontal wires with beads strung on them. When these beads are moved around, according to programming rules memorized by the user, all regular arithmetic problems can be done.
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The first mechanical digital calculating machine was built in 1642 by the French scientist philosopher Blaise Pascal. And since then the ideas and inventions of many mathematicians, scientists, and engineers paved the way for the development of the modern computer in following years.
In 1671, Gottfried Wilhelm Von Leibniz invented a computer that was built in 1694. It could add and multiply, after changing some things around. Leibniz invented a special stepped gear mechanism for introducing the addend digits, and this is still being used. Thomas of Colmar (A.K.A. Charles Xavier Thomas) created the first successful mechanical calculator that could add, subtract, multiply, and divide. A lot of improved desktop calculators were mainly made for commercial users, and not for the needs of science. First commercially successful calculator, for almost 40 years 1851 to 1887 Arithmometer was the only type of mechanical calculator.
In 1801, Joseph Marie Jacquard made an improvement to the textile loom by introducing a series of punched paper cards as a template which allowed his loom to weave intricate patterns automatically.
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The resulting Jacquard loom was an important step in the development of computers because the use of punched cards to define woven patterns can be viewed as an early, albeit limited, form of programmability. It was the fusion of automatic calculation with programmability that produced the first recognizable computers. In 1837, Charles Babbage was the first to conceptualize and design a fully programmable mechanical computer. Babbage was a mathematician who taught at Cambridge University in England. He began planning his calculating machine calling it the Analytical Engine. The idea for this machine was amazingly like the computer we know today. It was to read a program from punched cards (two types of cards, one for instructions other to input data), carry out the process and store the answers to different problems, and print the answer on paper. In the late 1880s, Herman Hollerith invented the recording of data on a machine readable medium. After some initial trials with paper tape, he settled on punched cards. To process these punched cards, he invented the tabulator, and the keypunch machines. These three inventions were the foundation of the modern information processing industry. Large-scale automated data processing of punched cards was performed for the 1890 United States Census by Hollerith's company, which later became the core of IBM. (the census were finished in one year where as census for 1880 took almost 8 years by manual tabulating) By the end of the 19th century a number of technologies that would later prove useful in the realization of practical computers had begun to appear: the punched card, Boolean algebra, the vacuum tube (thermionic valve) and the teleprinter.
In 1944, IBM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (ASCC), called the Mark I was developed at Harvard University by Howard H. Aiken, was an electro-mechanical computer which would automatically sequence the operations and calculations performed. It was very reliable, much more so than early electronic computers. The Mark I computer was very much like the design of Charles Babbage's having mainly mechanical parts, but with some electronic parts. His machine was designed to be
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programmed to do many computer jobs. This all-purpose machine is what we now know as the PC or personal computer. The Mark I was the first computer financed by IBM and was about 50 feet long and 8 feet tall. It used mechanical switches to open and close its electric circuits. It contained over 500 miles of wire and 750,000 parts. It has been described as "the beginning of the era of the modern computer" and "the real dawn of the computer age". ENIAC, short for Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer, was the first general-purpose, electronic computer built in 1946 by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly. It was complete digital computer capable of being reprogrammed to solve a full range of computing problems. It boasted speeds one thousand times faster than electromechanical machines, a leap in computing power that no single machine has since matched. This mathematical power, coupled with general-purpose programmability, excited scientists and industrialists. The ENIAC was a modular computer, composed of individual panels to perform different functions. Twenty of these modules were accumulators, which could not only add and subtract but hold a ten-digit decimal number in memory. Numbers were passed between these units across a number of generalpurpose buses, or trays, as they were called. In order to achieve its high speed, the panels had to send and receive numbers, compute, save the answer, and trigger the next operationall without any moving parts. Key to its versatility was the ability to branch; it could trigger different operations that depended on the sign of a computed result. The size of ENIACs numerical word was 10 decimal digits, and it could multiply two of these numbers at a rate of 300 per second, by finding the value of each product from a multiplication table stored in its memory. ENIAC was therefore about 1,000 times faster than the previous generation of relay computers. ENIAC used 18,000 vacuum tubes; about 1,800 square feet of floor space, and consumed about 180,000 watts of electrical power. It had punched card I/O, 1 multiplier, 1 divider/square rooter, and 20 adders using decimal ring counters, which served as adders and also as quick-access (.0002 seconds) read-write register storage. ENIAC is commonly accepted as the first successful high speed electronic digital computer (EDC) and was used from 1946 to 1955.
Modern type computer began with John von Neumann's development of software written in binary code. It was Von Neumann who began the practice of storing data and instructions in binary code
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and initiated the use of memory to store data, as well as programs. A computer called the EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Computer) was built using binary code in 1950. Before the EDVAC, computers like the ENIAC could do only one task then they had to be rewired to perform a different task or program. The EDVAC's concept of storing different programs on punched cards instead of rewiring computers led to the computers that we know today.
1.2 Generation of Computers and their evolution The modern computer with the power and speed of today was not a solitary invention that sprang completed from the mind of a single individual. Many people contributed their ideas, inventions and developments to the present computer what we see. The history of computer development is often referred to in reference to the different generations of computing devices. A generation refers to the state of improvement in the product development process. This term is also used in the different advancements of new computer technology. With each new generation, the circuitry has gotten smaller and more advanced than the previous generation before it. As a result of the miniaturization, speed, power, and computer memory has proportionally increased. New discoveries are constantly being developed that affect the way we live, work and play. We can compare the evolution of computer with the Mobiles, initial mobiles use to be big in size and without no camera and it is used only for the purpose of talking between people, but the latest mobiles are very sleek in size and with high end technology inbuilt in them like Cameras, Video Recording, Voice Recognition and Internet etc,. We shall read about each generation and the developments that led to the current devices that we use today.
Generation of Computers
First Generation

Second Generation Computers (1956-1963) Third Generation Computers (1964-1971) Fourth Generation Computers (19721990)
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Fifth Generation Computers (1990 and beyond)
First Generation Computers: UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer) was the first computer commercially available and marks the beginning of first generation of electrical computers. These computer systems are made of Vacuum Tubes. The input and output units were the punched card reader and the card punches. Below is the picture of Magnetic Drum Memory & UNIVAC Computer
Below is a sample picture of Punched cards
Features: 1. Computers were large in size (25 feet by 50 feet; 5600 tubes)
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2. These computers uses vacuum tube for data processing and storage, Cannot be relied completely as the vacuum tubes burned out during operations. 3. Requires Air Conditioning due to the high level of heat generation. 4. They had a memory size of 20 bytes and speed of 5 mbps 5. They use punch card for data storage. 6. The programmers were machine dependent. 7. Lower Internal Storage capacity (Magnetic Drums). 8. High consumption of Electric power. 9. Low speed of processing due to the low speed of input and output devices (Punched Cards). 10. Use of Low level language (Machine language).
Second Generation Computers: These computers used Transistors instead of Vacuum tubes. Transistors were invented in 1947 but seen widespread only from 1950s IBM 1401 was the most popular second generation computer. 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. 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. Features: 1. They were capable of translating, process and store data. 2. They were much smaller in size than first generation computers. 3. They had got memory size of 32 bytes and speed of 10 mbps, high processor speed. 4. Generated low level of heat and required less power. 5. Greater degree of reliability. 6. They use punch card for data storage. 7. Moved from Machine language to Assembly language and also initial high level language like COBOL and FORTRAN. Due to use of high level language and high level of operating system the computers were used by variety of users like by commercial users and scientific users.
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Third Generation Computers: Third Generation computers were built using the new technology called Integrated Circuits (IC). The ICs are silicon chips which are tiny in size; contain thousands of individual components integrated in a small chip. Thus the computers were compact, faster, more reliable, required less power and low cost. These computers can be used for both Scientific and business applications. Features: 1. They were much more powerful and smaller in size than second generation computers. 2. They used integrated circuit (I.C.) to store data which consisted of many transistors, increased processing speed. 3. The hardware cost and maintenance cost was much lower than second generation of computer. 4. They were generally used for business and scientific purposes 5. They uses storage disk for data storage e.g. magnetic disks, tapes. 6. Third generation computers were more reliable compared to other previous generations. 7. The operating systems were introduced in this era. 8. In this generation, high level programming languages were used. For e.g. Fortran, COBOL, PASCAL and BASIC. 9. Third generation computers permit Multi Programming and Time Sharing.
Fourth Generation computers: Fourth generation machines appeared in 1970s utilizing still newer technology which enabled to be even smaller and faster than third generation computers.
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The IC technology in the third generation was mainly MSI (Medium scale integration), where as the fourth generation computer adopted the IC technology with LSI (Large Scale Integration) and VLSI (Very Large scale Integration), further gone for ULSI. The microprocessor brought the fourth generation of computers, as thousands of integrated circuits were built onto a single silicon chip that contains a CPU. In the world of personal computers, the terms microprocessor and CPU are used interchangeably. Three basic characteristics differentiate microprocessors are: Instruction Set: The set of instructions that the microprocessor can execute. Bandwidth: The number of bits processed in a single instruction. Clock Speed: Given in megahertz (MHz), the clock speed determines how many instructions per second the processor can execute. Micro computers are fully assembled computer into single machine, which consisted of Keyboard, processor unit, CRT and built in cassette tape recorder. IBM PC, with the introduction of personal computer by IBM in 1981, and apple introduced the Macintosh in 1984, individuals also started buying the computers for their personal uses, thus computers stepped out of large organisations and entered into homes. Features: 1. More compact and smaller in size than the third generation computers. 2. Use of LSI and VLSI technology of Integrated Circuits. 3. Enhanced capability of input and output devices. 4. Introduction of Micro Computers and Personal Computers. 5. Computers are designed with graphical user interface which is user friendly. 6. Use of Hard disk as storage device, which are also available in the sizes of 80 GB to 500 GB and Terra bytes. 7. Technology of Networks LAN (Local Area Network) and Wan (Wide Area Network) is used for information accessing and sharing. 8. Very High speed of Microprocessor. 9. Use of Object oriented programming languages (OOPs)like Java, C++ have made the software more reliable and efficient.
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Fifth Generation Computers: 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. Artificial Intelligence is the branch of computer science concerned with making computers behave like humans. The term was coined in 1956 by John McCarthy. Artificial intelligence includes: Features: 1. Games Playing: Programming computers to play games like chess and checkers. 2. Expert System: Programming computers to make decisions in the real life situations, (for example, some expert systems help Doctor to Diagnose the diseases based on symptoms). 3. Natural Languages: Programming computers to understand natural human languages. 4. Neural Network: Systems that simulate the intelligence by attempting to reproduce the types of physical connections that occur in the brains. 5. Robotics: Programming computers to see and hear and react to other sensory stimuli. Natural-language processing offers the greatest advantage we could simply walk up to a computer and talk to it. Unfortunately, programming computers to understand natural languages has proved to be more difficult than originally thought. There are also voice recognition systems that can convert spoken sounds into written words, but they do not understand what they are writing; they simply take dictation. Currently, no computers exhibit full artificial intelligence (that is, are able to simulate human behavior). The greatest advances have occurred in the field of games playing. The best computer chess programs are now capable of beating humans. In May, 1997, an IBM supercomputer called Deep Blue defeated world chess champion Gary Kasparov in a chess match. Computers and technology of present may have few features of fifth generation computers like voice recognition, Expert systems used by Doctors in Diagnoses of patient needs. 1.3 Classification of Computers
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Computers are generally classified on the basis of various factors: 1) On the basis of working principals 2) On the basis for Size and data processing 1.3.1 On the basis of working Principals On the basis of working principals of computers, they can be categorized into Analog, Digital and Hybrid computers. a) Analog Computer An analog computer (spelt analogue in British English) is a form of computer that uses continuous physical phenomena such as electrical, mechanical, or hydraulic quantities to model the problem being solved. It is different from the digital computer in that it can perform numerous mathematical operations simultaneously. It is also unique in terms of operation, as it utilizes continuous variables for the purpose of mathematical computation.
b) Digital Computer A computer that performs calculations and logical operations with quantities represented as digits, usually in the binary number system. A digital computer is designed to process data in numerical form; its circuits perform directly the mathematical operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. The numbers operated on by a digital computer are expressed in the binary system; binary digits, or bits, i.e. 0 and 1. Binary digits are easily expressed in the computer circuitry by the presence (1) or absence (0) of a current or voltage. A series of eight consecutive bits is called a byte; the eight-bit byte permits 256 different on-off combinations. Each byte can thus represent one of up to 256 alphanumeric characters, and such an arrangement is called a single-byte character set (SBCS); A digital computer can store the results of its calculations for later use, can compare results with other data, and on the basis of such comparisons can change the series of operations it performs.
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Digital computers are used for reservations systems, scientific investigation, data-processing and wordprocessing applications, desktop publishing, electronic games, and many other purposes like business transaction processing etc. c) Hybrid Computer (Analog + Digital) A combination of computers those are capable of inputting and outputting in both digital and analog signals. Hybrid computer is a digital computer that accepts analog signals, converts them to digital and processes them in digital form. This integration is obtained by digital to analog and analog to digital converter. A hybrid computer capable of real-time solution has been less expensive than any equivalent digital computer. Hybrid computers have been necessary for successful system development. An example of a hybrid computer is the computer used in hospitals to measure the heartbeat of the patient. Hybrid Machines are generally used in scientific applications or in controlling industrial processes; they have only a limited usage not suitable for business applications.
1.3.2 On the basis of size and data processing power Based on the Processing speed, memory capacity and nos. of users computer can handle simultaneously the computers can be categorized as below: Sizes/Categorization of Computers
Super Computer
Mainframe Computer
Mini Computer
Micro Computer
Work Station
Server
(1) Super Computer: These are the largest, fastest and most expensive computers available, but are not intended for commercial data processing. They are used to process complex scientific applications such as weather research, defence, air craft design and computer generated movies. Super computer were introduced in 1960 as the worlds most advanced computer. As of May 2010, the Cray Jaguar is the fastest supercomputer in the world.
The first super computer was ILLIAC IV made by Burroughs. Other players in the manufacture of super computer are CRAY, IBM, HITACHI and Sun Microsystems, etc. The main characteristic that distinguishes the super computer from others is the high degree of parallelism, i.e., their ability to perform large number of operations simultaneously. The processing speed of a super computer can range between 10,000 MIPS (Million instructions per second) to 1.2 BIPS (Billion instructions per second). In general, the speed of a supercomputer is measured in "FLOPS" (FLoating Point Operations Per Second).The FLOPS is a measure of a computer's performance, especially in fields of scientific calculations that make heavy use of floating point calculations, similar to the older, simpler, instructions per second. "Petascale" supercomputers can process one quadrillion (1015) (1000 trillion) FLOPS. They can support up to 10,000 terminals at a time.
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(2) Main Frame Computer: Main frames are less powerful and cheaper than the super computer but Faster and costlier when compared with Mini computer. Mainframe can process at several million instructions per second and can support more than 1,000 remote terminals. Prices of Mainframe computer will range between 1 Crore to 5 Crores depending on the configurations. Major suppliers of Mainframe computers are IBM, Honey Well, etc. Mainframe normally used as central computer of big organizations like stock exchange, Banks Head offices (for Core banking) etc. Mainframes are also used for applications like Railway reservation or Airline reservation systems.
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(3) Mini Computer: Minicomputer performs data processing activities in the way as the mainframe but on a smaller scale. Data is usually input by means of key board. Minicomputer is small compared with a mainframe and can be called as scaled-down mainframe, also called as multi user computer as many persons can connect to the same CPU. Cost of minicomputer will range from Rs. 5 lacs to Rs. 50 lacs. Most popular mini computer manufacturers are IBM; DEC etc. Programming languages used by minicomputer include BASIC, PASCAL, COBOL, C and FORTRAN. (4)Microcomputers: A Microcomputer is a full-fledged computer system that uses a microprocessor as its CPU; these are also called personal computer systems. Microprocessor is a small silicon chip which consists of several integrated circuits used for processing. Once this microprocessor is combined with other chips like input, output and memory chips on the mother board then it will take the form of microcomputer. IBM and Apple are the two most popular players in the microcomputer manufacturing. The computers that we see in houses, offices are examples of Microcomputers. Microcomputer in the markets normally contains the below listed: CPU : Centrino Duo, Pentium IV, Core 2 Duo, i3, i5, i7 Mother Board : Intel865 Primary Memory (RAM) : 1 GB to 4 GB, DDR Secondary Storage : Hard Disk 250 GB or 500 GB, CD/DVD Writer. Output Devices : 17 CRT or LCD Monitor, Jet Printers Input Devices : Keyboard, Mouse, and Scanner etc. Processor : 16 or 32 bit processor.
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(5) Work Stations: Between mini computers and microcomputers in terms of processing power is a class of computer called as WORKSTATIONS. Workstation just looks like a personal computer and is typically used by one person. Workstation significantly differs in two areas from microcomputers. Workstations are constructed on different architecture of CPU called RISC (Reduced Instruction Set for Computing) due to which processing of instructions will be faster than microcomputers. Workstation typically runs on UNIX whereas the microcomputer can be run on DOS, UNIX, OS/2 and Windows. The most prominent manufacturers of Workstation are Sun Microsystems. 6) Server: A Server is a computer system that provides services to other computing systems called clients over a network. The typical server is a computer system that operates continuously on a network and waits for requests for services from other computers on the network. Many servers are dedicated to this role, but some may also be used simultaneously for other purposes, particularly when the demands placed upon them. For example, in a small office, a large desktop computer may act as both a desktop workstation for one person in the office and as a server for all the other computers in the office. However, servers run software that is often very different from that used on desktop computers and workstations. Servers primarily use some hardware and software to provide shareable services, example Web Server; Printer Server; Mail Server etc.
1.4 Advantages and Limitations of Computers: The Computers are very vastly used in present days, by the use of technology of computers the infrastructure and communication became fast. Life became difficult without computers and technology. Below are some advantages of computer: 1. Speed: The computers carry out the operations at a very high speed which cannot be imagined or viewed by the human beings. The smallest unit of time in the human experience is Second, but when it comes to the computers the operations are measured in milliseconds (10-3 Seconds), microseconds (10-6 Seconds), nanoseconds (10-9 Seconds) and picoseconds (10-12 Seconds).
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The computer generates signals during the operation process therefore the speed of computer is usually measure in megahertz (MHz) or gega hertz (GHz). It means million cycles units of frequency per second. Different computers have different speed. 2. Accuracy & Precision: Accuracy is an issue pertaining to the quality of data and number of errors contained in the data set. The accuracy is important to rely and act upon on any information; computers even processing at high speed will deliver the results with accuracy. Level of accuracy required varies from application to application basing on the rounding of fraction values. Example - commercial data processing accuracy of the values can be up to 2 to 4 decimal points, in case of scientific applications the accuracy of the value may be required up to 12 to 15 or even more decimal points. 3. Reliability: Now a days the computers down time came down drastically, their up time can be said at 99% i.e. computer has almost nil down time. Down time means the time during which computers are not available for processing. Even in case of disasters or emergency system crashes many plans are in place to run the systems from the backup systems which may be located at different place. The IEEE defines it as "the ability of a system or component to perform its required functions under stated conditions for a specified period of time." 4. Memory Capability/Storage: The data which is processed for the commercial purpose or any scientific purpose needs to be stored and should be able to access or retrieve when ever required with less effort. Thus Memory is more important, Computer systems have total and instant recall of data and an almost unlimited capacity to store these data. 5. Communication: With the advanced technology in the networking the computers will be able to transfer the information from one place to another immediately. Example When we send a mail, it reaches to the destination in few seconds. Computers in the combination of the networks made possible of business style Any Time Any Where eg- ATM Machines, where we can draw cash, check balance etc. 6. Automation: A computer can automatically perform operations without interfering with the user during the operations. It controls automatically different devices attached with the computer. It executes automatically the program instructions one by one. 7. Versatility: Versatile means flexible. Modern computer can perform different kind of tasks done by one or simultaneously. It is the most important feature of computer. At one moment we can play games on computer, the next moment we can compose and send emails etc. In colleges and universities computers are used to deliver lectures to the students. The talent of computer is dependent on the software. 8. Consistency: People often have difficulty to repeat their instructions again and again. For example, a lecturer feels difficulty to repeat a same lecture in a class room again and again. Computer can repeat
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actions consistently (again and again) without loosing its concentration. A computer will carry out the activity with the same way every time. Limitations: Despite of all the above advantages computers also has their own limitations or disadvantages as listed below 1. Programming: Any computer to perform it requires instructions for what to do, how to do and when to do. These instructions for a computer can be called as programmes. Thus if the program is correct with no errors then the actions performed by the computer will be accurate and reliable. 2. No Intelligence: Although computers are faster, more diligent, accurate and versatile than human beings, it cannot replace them. Unlike human beings, computers do not have any intelligence. Its performance is depends on instructions given to it. It cannot carry any task at its own. 3. No decision making power : Computer cannot make any decisions nor can it render any help to solve a problem at its own like that if we plays chess with computer, the computer can take only those steps which is entered by the programmer. It cannot move at its own. 4. Curtail human Capabilities: Although computers are great help to human beings. It is commonly felt that we people have become so dependent on calculator that we cannot make very simple calculation without calculator. Sometimes, find it difficult to instantly speak out even those telephone numbers which they use every now and then as they have got the habit of using them by retrieving the storage. Further, excessive use of computers is causing various type of health injuries such as cervical and back pain, pain in eye, headache. 5. Application logic must be understood: computer may not be helpful to people in areas where subjective evaluations are important. For example, it may not be able to tell a sales manager if a new product will be successful. But the computer can tell the manager how the product will fare under assumed price, cost, and sales volume conditions. These assumed values could be fed into the computer. 6. Data input: The computers will perform all the operation using the programs on the data input; when the data is not reliable and accurate even though the program is correct the out put will be wrong. In computer terms it is popularly known as GIGO (Garbage In and Garbage Out). The output of the programs will be based on the input data and the accuracy of the programs. 7. Skilled Manpower: The availability of the skilled manpower is also one limitation, now days the availability is increasing. Conclusion: - Despite of the above few limitations the computers have become very popular and been part of human life, where it is very difficult to imagine the life without computer.
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1.5 Basic Computer Architecture 1.5.1 Basic computer functions In Computer System, different parts of a computer are organized in such a way that, it helps to perform various operations to complete the given specific task. Widely computers are used to perform arithmetic calculations. However, now-a-days computer is used for many other purposes. A computer as shown in figure performs basically five major operations or functions irrespective of their size and make. These are 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. It accepts data or instructions by way of input, It stores data, It can process data as required by the user, It gives results in the form of output, and It controls all operations inside a computer
1. Input: It is the process of entering data and programs into the computer system. Input is further processed to produce the required results. Input will be received in a prescribed format. 2. Storage: The process of saving data and instructions permanently is known as storage. The primary storage of the computer system is designed to supply data and inputs to CPU so to meet its speed of processing, the storage is not permanent. The Secondary storage is used to store the data permanently. The storage unit performs the following major functions: All data and instructions are stored here before and after processing. Intermediate results of processing are also stored here. 3. Processing: The task of performing operations like arithmetic and logical operations is called processing. The Central Processing Unit (CPU) takes data and instructions from the storage unit and makes all calculations based on the instructions given and it is then sent back to the storage unit. 4. Output: This is the process of producing results from the computer to users. The output produced by the computer can also be kept inside the computer for further usage or can be directly sent out.
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5. Control: The manner how instructions are executed and the above operations are performed. Controlling of all operations like input, processing and output are performed by control unit. It takes care of step by step processing of all operations inside the computer. 1.5.2 Component of Computer Systems CPU
We will now briefly discuss each of the above components Computer needs two things to function properly, Hardware and Software. Hardware consists of several physical components like Key Board, CPU, Monitors, Mouse and other peripheral devices CD/DVD Drive, modems, Printers etc. Software consists of programs which are further classified as System programs (e.g. Operating System like Windows, DOS) Application programs (MS-Word, MS-Excel, Tally etc.) Computer Hardware is classified as CPU and Peripheral Devices. 1.5.2.1 Central Processing Unit (CPU): The Central Processing Unit (CPU).also known as the processor is the heart, soul and brain of the computer. In a microcomputer, the entire CPU is contained on a tiny chip called a microprocessor Currently the Pentium chip or processor, made by Intel, is the most common CPU, this is the most important part on the mother board (a platform which allows all the devices stay connected and flow of data among them).
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Every CPU has at least two basic parts, Control Unit and Arithmetic Logical Unit which co ordinates with each other.
1. Control Unit: All the computers resources are managed from the control unit. The Control unit function is to co ordinate all the activities of the computer like controlling the inputs and outputs. Any instruction which involves movement of data from one device to another like from primary memory to printer or Storage device (Hard Disk) etc is executed by control unit and if any instruction contains arithmetic and logical operation on data then it is transferred to ALU. A CPU contains in built instructions for carrying out various types of operation. Each instruction or instruction set is expressed in microcode-a series of basic directions that tell the ALU how to execute. To execute any instruction, the instruction is first of all reaches to Control unit, which created the corresponding microcode and passes it to ALU, where the actual execution of the instruction takes place. Usually, when a new CPU is developed, the instruction set has all the same commands as its predecessor plus some new ones. Therefore, more the instructions in the instruction set of CPU more advance is the CPU.
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2. Arithmetic Logic Unit: As said earlier every instruction to the computer first reaches the control unit and if it contains any Arithmetic or Logic operation the respective microcode is passed to the ALU (Second component of CPU). ALU includes a group of circuits and registers, Circuits to process data and registers which are high speed storage used to hold the data currently being processed, (this is a temporary memory). ALU can perform two types of operations, Arithmetic operations like addition, subtraction, multiplications and divisions. Logical operations like comparison between two numbers or text.
1.5.2.2 Various features of Central Processing Unit (CPU): Over a period of time, the processor has evolved from slow 286s or 386s running at speeds as low as 20 MHz to present day Pentium III and IV running at a whooping 3 GHz (3000 MHz i.e. 3,000,000,000 cycles) Now we take a closer look at the various features that the Central Processing Unit of a PC offers.
Important Features of CPU
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Clock Speed: Measurement of Instruction processing speed of CPU
Cache Memory: Internal Memory of CPU
CPUs Slot & Socket: Holder of CPU on Mother Board
MMX (Multimedia Extension): Instruction set in CPU which process Audio & Video data
Density: No. Of Transistors in CPU
Lets have a look at the picture of CPU cabinet
1. Clock Speed: The clock speed is the speed at which the processor executes instructions. Clock speed is measured in megahertz (MHz).which is a million cycles per second, therefore processor Pentium IV with 3 GHz (3000 MHz) executes 3000 million instructions per second. Higher the clocks speed, the faster the processor, the better the system performance. Also, some microprocessors are super scalar, which means that they can execute more than one instruction per clock cycle. 2. Cache Memory: Processors incorporate their own internal cache memory. The cache acts as temporary memory and boosts processing power significantly. The cache that comes with the processor is called Level One (L1) cache. This cache runs at the processors clock speeds, and therefore is very fast. The L1 cache is divided into 2 sections. One for data, the other for instructions. Generally, more the L1 cache, faster the processor. Additionally, PCs also include a much slower secondary, or Level Two (L2) cache. This cache resides on the motherboard and delivers slower performance when compared with the L1 cache. To overcome this limitation, newer chips (Pentium II and Pentium III) house the L2 cache in a cartridge along with the CPU. Working of Cache Memory:
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It is a memory of main processor. Whatever data we send to computer first of all it reaches to main memory (RAM). From this main memory it goes to processor (CPU) for processing and it comes to main memory once processing is finished. As the processor is much faster than the main memory, lot of time is consumed in transferring the data back and forth between main memory and processor. In order to reduce the time consumed in transferring of data between main memory and Processor, we use cache memory which is inside the processor itself and much faster than RAM. As shown in the memory diagram with cache memory the CPU will be communicating with high speed cache memory in place of normal RAM therefore, the effective processing speed of computer would increase. 3. Slot: A CPU socket or CPU slot is an electrical component that is attached to a printed circuit board (PCB) and is designed to house a microprocessor. It is a special type of integrated circuit socket designed for very high pin counts. A CPU socket provides many functions, including providing a physical structure to support the CPU, providing support for a heat sink, facilitating replacement (as well as reducing cost) and most importantly forming an electrical interface both with the CPU and the PCB. Different processors use different sockets or slots to fit onto the motherboard. Based on the type of processors, there are various types of slots.
4. Density: A CPU is made up of millions of small transistors. A CPU performs all the calculation and manipulation operations by synchronising between the transistors. Therefore, the shorter the distance between two transistors on a CPU, the faster the performance. Older CPUs had a distance of one micron between the transistors. But, newer CPUs have a distance as small as 0.35 micron between two transistors, delivering faster performance. 5. MMX: MMX stands for Multimedia extensions a set of instructions built into the CPU, specifically intended for improving the performance of multimedia or graphic applications like Games, Videos and Audio applications. The processors which have the inbuilt instructions for multimedia data processing are called as processors with MMX features. MMX is now normal or default feature of all the CPU.
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1.6 Components of Mother Board: The motherboard or the system board is the main circuit board on the computer. It acts as a direct channel for the various components to interact and communicate with each other. There are various types of motherboards available (depending on the processors that are used)
Above is a snapshot of mother board and its components Following are the main components of mother board: 1.6.1 Processor slot: The processor slot houses the processor. It is rectangular connector into which the processor is mounted vertically. It also refers more specifically to a square-shaped connector with many small connectors into which the processor is directly inserted.
1. BIOS: BIOS stands for Basic Input Output System, a small chip on the motherboard that loads the hardware settings required to load various devices like keyboards, monitors, or disk drives. BIOS is also known as ROM BIOS because it is ROM chip (IC) which contain system software known as Basic input output system which used for initial operation of computer. BIOS contain permanent instructions or programs also known as start up programs used in booting or starting of computer.
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2. CMOS (Complimentary Metal Oxide Semiconductor): The PC uses the CMOS memory to store the date, time and system setup parameters. These parameters are loaded every time the computer is started. A small Lithium Ion battery located on the motherboard powers the CMOS as well as the BIOS.
3. Power supply connectors: The power supply connectors allow the user to connect the power supply unit to the motherboard and provide power for the functioning of the various devices or components like CD/DVD writer, Hard Disk, etc. 16.2 Expansion Slots and Boards: PCs are designed so that users can adapt, or configure the machines to their own particular needs. PC motherboards have two or more expansion slots. These slots are used normally for I/O devices like graphical adopter card on which the visual display unit is attached. Similarly we can put the Modem card to use the internal modem. These expansion slots are also used for connecting CD/DVD drive, external Hard disk or Pen drives etc. In general these are known as expansion slots as these slots helps to expand the capability of the computer by attaching more devices or using computer with added capability like TV tuner card is used in expansion slot to use the computer as TV.
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Picture of Expansion Slots Some of the Slots are briefly discussed below: 1. SIMM/DIMM slots: SIMM stands for Single Inline Memory Modules, while DIMM stands for Dual Inline Memory Module. SIMM/DIMM slots are used to house RAM modules. Now a day almost all the computers are using DIMM as the SIMM is outdated technology. 2. PCI slots: Now a day almost all the expansion slots provided on mother board are of PCI types. The PCI (Peripheral Component Interface) slots are used for connecting PCI-based devices like graphics accelerator cards, sound cards, internal modems or SCSI cards. 3. AGP slot: All Celeron and Pentium-III/P-IV motherboards come with an AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) slot. AGP is a dedicated slot meant to provide faster access to AGP-based graphic accelerator cards, thus enhancing the visual experience for the user. AGP card normally keeps a dedicated processor for graphic processing and video RAM for storing graphical data for a quality output of graphical data. 4. ISA: Industry Standard Architecture was a computer bus standard for IBM compatible computers. This is most ancient type of expansion slot ever used in the computer system. The ISA enables controllers connect directly to the bus to communicate directly with the other peripherals without going through the processor. However, the ISA bus only allows hardware to address the first 16 megabytes of RAM. 5. SCSI: It is a device interface that is used to solve the problem of a finite and possibly insufficient number of expansion slots. It is called small computer system interface (SCSI pronounced .scuzzy.) Instead of plugging interface cards into the computers bus via the expansion slots, SCSI can be inserted in one expansion slot and we can extend that slot to outside the computer by way of a cable. In other
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words, SCSI is like an extension cord for computer bus. The current standard is SCSI - 3, which allows upto 7 devices to be chained on a single SCSI port. Now-a-days many devices support the SCSI interface. Fast, high-speed hard disk drives often have SCSI interfaces, so do scanners, tape drives and optical storage devices.
1.6.3 Cards: Cards are components added to computers to increase their capability or to have additional functionalities. When adding a peripheral device one should ensure that the computer has a suitable slot. Sound cards allow computers to produce sound like music and voice. The older sound cards were 8 bit then 16 bit then 32 bit. Colour cards allow computers to produce colour. The first colour cards were 2 bit which produced 4 colours [CGA]. Next came 4 bit allowing for 16 [EGA and VGA ] colours Then came 16 bit allowing for 1064 colours and then 24 bit which allows for almost 17 million colours and now 32 bit is standard allowing monitors to display almost a billion separate colours. Video cards allow computers to display video and animation. Some video cards allow computers to display television as well as capture frames from video. A video card with a digital video camera allows computer users to produce live video (Web Cam). A high speed or network connection is needed for effective video transmission. Many video cards offer added functions, such as accelerated rendering of 3D scenes and 2D graphics, video capture, TV tuner adapter, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding,
Network cards allow computers to connect together to communicate with each other. Network cards have connections for cable, thin wire or wireless networks.
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16.4 Ports & Connectors: Ports and connectors let the user connect external devices like printers, keyboards, monitors or scanners and let them interface with the PC (Personal Computer). The physical interfaces for the ports and connectors are located on the outside of CPU cabinet but they are directly or indirectly (using a connector card) connected to the motherboard. There are various types of ports or connectors, each providing different data transfer speeds to connect various external peripherals. Parallel ports: Parallel ports are used to connect external input/output devices like scanners or printers. Parallel ports facilitate the parallel transmission of data, usually one byte (8 bits) at a time. Parallel ports use 25 pin RS- 232C.
Com/Serial ports: They are used for connecting communication devices like modems or other serial devices like mouse, Keyboard. There are two varieties of Com ports the 9-pin ports and 25-pin ports. Serial Ports facilitate the serial transmission of data, i.e. one bit at a time.
IDE drive connector: IDE devices like CD-ROM drives or hard disk drives are connected to the motherboard through the IDE connector.
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Floppy drive connector: The floppy drive connectors are used for connecting the floppy drive to the motherboard, to facilitate data exchange. Now a days floppy drives are hardly used by any personal computers. USB Port or connectors: USB stands for Universal Serial Bus. This is latest and most popular port technology. These ports provide the user with higher data transfer speeds for different USB devices like keyboards, mouse, scanners or digital cameras.
PS/2 Connectors: PS/2 stands for Personal System/2. PS/2 connectors are used to connect PS/2 based input devices like PS/2 keyboards or mouse.
Monitor Ports: The monitor port is used to connect monitor with the system. These are called as VGA (Video graphic Array) connector
Power Connectors: These are used to connect the power chord from external power supply source, from which the internal power supply connectors get the power to the mother board and other devices.
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In addition to the common components that are found on the motherboard, newer motherboards also come with integrated graphics accelerator cards or sound cards-there is no need to install a separate card to get the work done.
View of Ports & Connectors
1.6.5 The Bus: The maze of circuits etched on the motherboard forms the bus of the PC. A bus acts as the systems expressway -it transmits data between the various components on the motherboard. Theoretically, a bus is a collection of wires through which data is transmitted between the various components of a PC. A bus connects the various components of the PC with the CPU and the main memory (RAM) logically, a bus consists of two parts, an address bus and a data bus. The Data Bus: The Data Bus is an electrical path that connects the CPU, memory, and the other hardware devices on the motherboard. Actually, the bus is a group of parallel wires. Each wire can transfer one bit at a time, an 8-bit bus can move eight bits at a time, which is a full byte. A 16-bit ISA (Industry standard Architecture) bus can transfer two bytes, later 32-bit MCA (Micro channel Architecture) and 32 bit EISA (Extended Industry standard Architecture) bus was introduced these can transfer 4 bytes at a time, present days 64 bits bus called as PCI (Peripheral component Interconnect) Bus is used. PC buses are designed to match the capabilities of the devices attached to them. When CPUs could send and receive only one byte of data at a time, there was no point in connecting them to a bus that
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could move more data. As microprocessor technology improved, however, chips were built that could send and receive more data at once, and improved bus designs created wider paths through which the data could flow. The Address Bus: The second bus that is found in every microcomputer is the address bus. The address bus is a set of wires similar to the data bus that connects the CPU and RAM and carries the memory addresses. The computer power is not only known for its speed, but also for its storage capacity. Computer memory holding capacity is determined based on the size of Address bus. More width of an address bus more it has the memory capacity. Over the year the size of the address bus has been increased to 32 bits from 20 bits, a 32 bit address bus system can address 4 GB of memory capacity. Control bus :( or command bus) transports orders and synchronize signals coming from the control unit and traveling to all other hardware components. It is a bidirectional bus, as it also transmits response signals from the hardware. A control bus is a computer bus, used by CPUs for communicating with other devices within the computer. It is used to transmit a variety of individual signals (read, write, interrupt, acknowledge, and so forth) necessary to control and coordinate the operations of the computer. The individual signals transmitted over the control bus and their functions are covered in the appropriate functional area description. 1.7 Storage Devices The CPU requires the basic instructions needed to operate the computer, but it does not have the capability to store programs (Instructions) or large sets of data permanently. Just like human brain which stores all the data, computer needs blocks of space where it can store the instructions that help in processing arithmetical and logical operations. This area is called memory or storage.
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1.7.1 Types of Storage Devices: Various forms of storage devices are invented each with an individual purpose shown above 1. Primary Storage: Primary storage is either connected directly or a part of the CPU, this must be present for CPU to function properly. As shown in the figure the primary storage consists below parts: Process Registers are internal memories of CPU. These are the fastest memories than all forms of computer storage. Registers holds the information that the Arithmetic and Logic units need to carry out the current instruction. Main Memory Contains the programs that are currently being run and the data on which the programs are executed. The ALU can very quickly transfer information between the process register and the location in main memory known as memory addresses. In present computer the RAM (Random Access Memory) is used as main memory which is directly connected to CPU via Address bus and Data bus.
Main Memory
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Cache Memory is a special type of internal memory used by CPU for improving the performance and output. This memory is used to hold those data and instructions which are frequently used by CPU. This memory is used in limited capacity than RAM. 2. Secondary, tertiary and offline storage: These storage devices are used for Mass storage of data. These storages are also known as permanent storage devices, where as primary storage is used to hold the data temporarily till the processing completed. Secondary storage requires the computer to use its input/output channels to access the information and used for long-term storage of persistent information. Hard disks are the most popular secondary storage devices. Time taken to access the data from Hard disks are much less than the time taken to access data from Magnetic tapes, rotating devices like CD or DVDs. Tertiary storage is removable storage devices like CDs and DVDs but the process of removing and inserting the devices is carried out by Robotic arms automatically as per the operating systems instructions. These types of storages are not seen in the personal computers. Offline storage is a system where the storage medium can be easily removed and inserted manually. Offline storage can be used for data transfer, Back up or Archival purpose. In modern computers the offline storages are CDs DVDs and Flash Memory (Pen Drives, Memory cards etc.) In past the offline storages are Magnetic tapes. Robotic storage is a new type of storage method used for backups, and for high capacity archives in imaging, medical, and video industries. 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. 3. Network Storage: Network storage allows to centralise the information management in an organisation, and to reduce duplication of information. Network storage includes, Direct Attached Storage (DAS) refers to a network storage system on which data is saved to the server computer's internal hard drive. The network workstations access the server to connect to the storage. These files are saved directly onto the computer's disk space and can be readily pulled up at any time. This is the most commonly used means of network storage. The disadvantages of DAS include its inability to share data or unused resources with other servers. Network Attached Storage (NAS) is a type of network storage system that saves data onto another computer system attached to a group of computers through a network, or onto a special server attached to the network. A NAS device is typically a stand-alone, high performance, single purpose system or component.
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It serves specific storage needs with its own operating system and integrated hardware and software. NAS devices are well suited to serve heterogeneous networks. The advantages of NAS over other methods of storage are performance and connectivity. Storage Area Network (SAN) is an architecture to attach remote computer data storage devices (such as disk arrays, tape libraries, and optical jukeboxes) to servers so the devices appear as locally attached to the operating system. A SAN typically has its own network of storage devices that are generally not accessible through the regular network by regular devices. SAN reduces data traffic and improves data access by using Fiber connections. 1.7.2 Characteristics of Storage: The different storages like primary, secondary, tertiary and offline have the below characteristics: 1. Volatility of information Volatile memory requires the constant power supply to maintain the information; these are used as mainly for primary storage. Once power is off the information stored in these will be erased automatically e.g. RAM. Non-Volatile memory will retain the information that is stored even if power supply is off. It is suitable for long term and permanent storages. Therefore these are used for Secondary, Tertiary and offline storages. E.g. Hard disk, DVDs Pen drives. Dynamic memory is volatile memory which also requires that stored information is Periodically refreshed, or read and rewritten without modifications. 2. Ability to access non-contiguous information Random Access means any location in storage can be accessed at any moment in the same amount of time. This provides fast access to the data stored. Sequential Access means accessing a piece of information sequentially i.e. one by one from the position of last accessed information. 3. Ability to change or delete information Read/Write storage or Mutable storage allows information to be over written, modify, delete or retrieve the required information at any time, e.g. Hard Disk. Modern computers use these storages as Secondary Storage.
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Read only storage retains information stored at the time of manufacture and Write Once Memory (WROM) allows to write information only once at any point of time e.g. CD. These are called Immutable Storage, mainly used for Tertiary storage and Offline back up storage. The information stored in these cannot be changed. Slow Write, fast read storage is read/write storage which allows information to overwritten multiple times, but with the write operation being much slower than the read operation, e.g. Re-writeable CD/DVD 4. Addressability of information Location Address Storage: In this each individual character of information is given separate address e.g. RAM File Address Storage: In this information is divided into files and file is provided an address which is a human readable. The underlying device still uses location address system but operating system will provide the file abstraction to make the operation more understandable Content Address Storage: These are also implemented with the use of some software to address a particular content or field like you look in your mobile for Dialed numbers, Missed calls, Received calls etc. 5. Capacity and Performance Storage capacity is the total size of the information that a storage device or medium can hold. It is measured as Megabytes (MB) or Gigabytes (GB). Storage Density defines the compactness of stored information. It is measured as megabytes per square inch or gigabytes per square inch. Latency is the time taken to access the information from the storage device as we know Hard disk takes less time to access the information than the Floppy. It is measured in millisecond, microsecond or nanosecond etc. Throughput is the rate at which the information can read from or written to storage devices. It is measured in the MB/sec GB/sec. 1.7.3 Primary Storage Following are various types of system memories in the computer system. These are also known as on board Memories i.e. memories on some circuit board.
IPCC Information Technology Unit -1 Primary Storage
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Semiconductor Memory
RAM
ROM
Bubble Memory
Flash Memory
Video RAM
Dynamic RAM
Static RAM
PROM
EPROM
EEPROM
1. Semiconductor Memory: Semiconductor memories are in the form of thin chip known as Integrated Circuit (IC). These memories are made with semiconductor material known as Silicon. There are various technologies of semi-conductor memories, faster and more expensive bipolar semiconductors are often used in Arithmetic Logic Units and high speed buffer storage sections of the CPU, while slower and less expensive metal-oxide semi-conductors (MOS) are used in primary memory. 1) These memories are made with a semiconductor material known as silicon in the form of IC (chip). 2) These silicon chips consists of large no of transistors (Storage cells) that can hold the large capacity of data 3) These memories are very fast in operation (no moving or mechanical part is used, as in Floppy or Hard disk) and consume low power. The ICs can be scaled according to the capacity of the chip used in storing the data in computer system: SSI (small-scale integration): Up to 100 electronic components per chip. MSI (medium-scale integration): From 100 to 3,000 electronic components per chip. LSI (large-scale integration): From 3,000 to 100,000 electronic components per chip. VLSI (very large-scale integration): From 100,000 to 1,000,000 electronic components per chip. ULSI (ultra large-scale integration): More than 1 million electronic components per chip.
2. RAM (Random Access Memory):
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1) The RAM is high speed semi-conductor memory, it is synonym with computer main memory i.e. all the computers main memories or primary memories are known as RAM. 2) RAM is that memory in computer, that holds the instructions and data which are currently under execution. 3) RAM is a volatile memory; the information in RAM will be lost once the power is switch off. 4) Data in the RAM can be accessed or insert directly, hence this memory is called as Random Access Memory. RAM can be of two types Static RAM and Dynamic RAM, discussed below: The Static RAM retains the stored data as long as the power remains on, whereas with dynamic RAM, the stored information disappears after a few milliseconds have elapsed, even when power is on. The data must, therefore be repeatedly refreshed before it disappears. The power consumption of a dynamic RAM is less than that of a static RAM, which has the advantage of making a higher degree of integration possible. The computer does the refreshing process itself, taking time out from other chores every few milliseconds. It will read all the RAM memory positions while they are still readable and put appropriate new charge on each capacitor. Some dynamic RAM memory circuits include built-in refresh circuits to relieve the computer. Presently used is DDR SDRAM (Double Data Rate Synchronous DRAM) used for RAM chips and SRAM are used for high speed but less storage capacity cache memory units. Other Types of SRAM Asynchronous SRAM; Synchronous SRAM; Pipeline Burst SRAM.
3. ROM (Read Only Memory): Another type of computer memory is the Read Only Memory it is used for the Micro programs. The name implies that the data stored in this can only be read and cannot be altered by any regular programs. The information is stored permanently at the time of manufacture. These are used for storing
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permanent instructions which computer may be executing frequently. One set of instruction found in ROM is ROM- BIOS which stands for Read Only Memory Basic Input Output Services. Types of ROM, PROM: Programmable Read Only Memory is a non-volatile memory which allows the user to program the chip with a PROM write. The chip can be programmed once, thereafter, it cannot be altered. EPROM: EPROM stands for Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory. EPROM chips can be electrically programmed. Unlike ROM and PROM chips, EPROM chips can be erased and reprogrammed. Erasure is performed by exposing the chip to Ultra-violet light. EEPROM: Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory is EPROM. However, the data can be erased by applying electrical charges. Rom is mainly used for storing system software and set of start up instructions for computer and some micro program to control the computer hardware and these start up instructions and micro program are known as BIOS.
4. Bubble Memory: This Bubble memory is composed of small magnetic domains (bubbles) formed on a thin single-crystal film of synthetic garnet. These bubbles which are actually magnetically charged cylinders which are thousandth of centimeter in size, can be moved across the garnet film by electric charges. The presence or absence of a bubble can be used to indicate whether a bit is on or off. The bubble memory is non volatile i.e. data will reside even power is turned off. Therefore, this memory can be used for auxiliary storage. Since it is small, lightweight, and does not use very much power, bubble memory is finding a great deal of use as an auxiliary storage in portable computers. 5. Flash memory: Flash memory chips are one of the latest storage devices. These chips, a form of static RAM (SRAM) chips, store data much like those used in the computers primary storage. However, the data stays recorded even when the power is turned off flash memory is non-volatile. Since flash memory devices have no moving parts, and are therefore very fast, they may eventually replace slower, mechanical hard disk drives.
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Flash memory is small in size portable memory, can easily carry in pocket, these are being used as auxiliary memory in small size PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), Palm Top computer and Digital Camera etc. 6. Video RAM: This is a memory used for quality graphic display. It is normally part of AGP (Accelerated Graphic Processor Card) and help in accelerating the display of graphics, special effects on the screen. It does this by using two .ports,. one connected to the CPU and the other to the screen. Data flows in one port and out the other very smoothly. 1.8 Secondary Storage: Mainly there are two types of memory in computers. One is known as Primary memory and other is secondary memory or auxiliary storage. Primary storage is built into the CPU whereas secondary storage or auxiliary storage is usually housed in a separate unit or units. Primary storage is very fast-its contents can be accessed in millionth or billionths of a second. But primary storage has a limited capacity and cannot store data permanently. In order to overcome these problems of primary memory computers always has a secondary memory to store data permanently. Secondary storage has an almost infinite capacity measured in millions and billions of bytes. Primarily there are two types of auxiliary storage although there are Magneto Optical and semiconductor memories also which are used as auxiliary storage devices. 1.8.1 Floppy Diskettes: In the early 1970.s IBM introduced a new medium for storing data. This medium consisted of a circular piece of thin plastic material, approximately eight inches in diameter that was coated with an oxide material. The circular piece of plastic, called a disk, is enclosed in a square protective jacket with a cut out (Read/Write Slot) so that the magnetic surface is exposed for data storage and retrieval. Diskettes are available in a number of different sizes. The original diskette was of the size of 8 inches. During the 1980, most PCs used 5.25-inch diskettes. Today, the 3.5- inch diskette has largely replaced its 5.25-inch cousin. The size refers to the diameter of the disk, not to the capacity. As mentioned above surface of diskette are coated with millions of small iron particles (Oxides) to store the data. Each of these particle acts as a magnet. When read/write head of floppy drive passes over these magnets it generates magnetic field in these magnet to store data.
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5.25 Floppy
3.5 Floppy
Floppy Drive Floppy diskette when inserted in the floppy drive will start doing the circular motion. Normal rotational speed of floppy is 300 rotations per minute. Read/Write head of drive can do the linear movement only. 1.8.1.1 How Data is stored or organized on Floppy Disk: When the new diskettes (or a new hard drive) are purchased, the disks inside are nothing more than simple, coated disks encased in plastic. Before the computer can use them to store data, they must be magnetically mapped so that the computer can go directly to a specific point on the diskette without searching through data. The process of mapping a diskette is called formatting or initializing. Today, many diskettes come preformatted for either PCs or Macs. The first thing a disk drive does when formatting a disk is to create a set of magnetic concentric circles called tracks.
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Tracks & Sectors
Magnetic material of disk which stores data is divided into concentric circles known as tracks. The Tracks are further divided into sectors. Each sector has unique number on the disk, which help computer to access or store data on floppy disk. Sectors are used ultimately to store or refer data on diskette. Now a days 3.5 inch floppy is double sided (means both the sides can store the data), with 80 tracks per side and 18 sectors per track with 512 bytes on every sector. The Storage capacity of the diskette is dependent on the following three factors. 1. The number of sides on the diskette i.e. single sided or double sided now a days only double sided diskette (which can store the data on both sides of diskette) are available in market 2. Recording density: Recording density refer to number of bits that can be stored on one inch of inner most tracks known as bpi (bits per inch). Diskette can be single density (2768 bits per inch), double density (5876 bits per inch) or high density (excess of 10000 bits per inch) now a day only high density floppy diskettes are available in the market.
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3. Number of Tracks: Number of tracks depends on the drive but now a days only 80 tack per side is available in the market.
1.8.1.2 How operating system read data or Floppy is used for reading and writing purpose? A computers operating system is able to locate data on a disk (diskette or hard drive) because each track and sector is labeled, and the location of all data is kept in a special log on the disk. The labeling of tracks and sectors is called performing a logical or soft format. A commonly used logical format performed by DOS or Windows creates these four disk areas: 1. 2. 3. 4. The boot record The file-allocation table (FAT) The root folder or directory The data area
1. The boot record: It is a small program that runs when the computer is started. This program determines whether the disk has the basic components of DOS or Windows that are necessary to run the operating system successfully. If it determines that the required files are present and the disk has a valid format, it transfers control to one of the operating system programs that continues the process of starting up. This process is called booting because the boot program makes the computer .pull itself up by its bootstraps. Boot record also keeps some other information like no. of bytes per sector and sectors per track etc., which help the operating system to access the data area of disk. 2. File Allocation table (FAT): This is the most important area for keeping the data on the floppy. This area keeps the address information for all the files stored on the floppy. Whenever a new file is stored by operating system on the floppy its address information is placed in the FAT. So when operating system wants to access any file it takes its address information from FAT and accordingly access the file. FAT area also provides information to operating system regarding the available free area on disk for storage, which ultimately helps OS in efficient storage of data. A user normally cannot access FAT area to check the available free tracks and sectors or files stored on the disk. But user can use one more tool known as folder or directory to check the stored files and available free space on the disk. A folder keeps the files and other folders in a hierarchical form for providing a tree view of stored data and files. 3. Root Folder: As we mentioned above in the FAT that user can view the stored data files and available free space using a tool called folder or directory, which organize the files and other folders in a hierarchical form. The top folder of this hierarchical arrangement is called as Root Folder. E.g. C:, A: for Floppy disk. 4. Data Area: The part of the disk that remains free after the boot sector, FAT, and root folder have been created is called the data area because that is where the data files (or program files) are actually stored. This is the largest area on the disk.
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1.8.1.3 Care required in using and storing a diskette: On receiving a new diskette, it should be inspected for sign of obvious damage. The surface of the diskette should not be touched with hand or some sharp object. Write-protect precaution should be observed by peeling off or sticking on (as applicable) the aluminum square on the notch. Correct insertion of disk in the disk drive is essential, otherwise some data stored on the disk is likely to be destroyed or the disk itself may get damaged. The diskette should be inserted slowly in the disk drive only when power to the entire computer system is on. It should be removed prior to turning the system off. As a defensive measure, it is advisable that a back-up copy of the information stored on each diskette be prepared and stored separately at a safe location. The diskette should be properly labeled for right identification. While storing a diskette, both physical and environmental factors should be considered. Diskette should not be stored in such a way that may sag, slump or compress it. The main enemies of a diskette are temperature and direct sunlight, dust, liquids and vapors and electromagnetic interference. Diskette should be protected from them. Care should be taken to clean the disk drive head to remove dust regularly. Floppy diskettes are very cheap and offer both sequential and direct access to data at a substantially high speed. Typically, data may be transferred at the rate of 30,000 to 1,50,000 bytes per second. . Floppy disk drives are generally smaller and more economical to manufacture than rigid disk systems. That is why these are used as auxiliary storage and I/O media with mini and microcomputer installations, at present the Compact disk has taken the lead in the market. In Mainframes also, these are being used as input medium.
1.8.2 Magnetic Disk (Hard Disk): Magnetic disks are higher version of Floppy. In place of using one plastic film of double sided as in floppy, magnetic disc uses so many surfaces of metal plates which are more rigid than the plastic film in floppy which will increase the storage capacity. Magnetic disk surface is also divided into tracks and further divided into sectors. These so many surfaces together are attached on one simple like a stack of disk. The same track no. of every surface is aligned and makes a structure known as cylinder. Unlike floppy diskettes, where the disk and drive are separate, the hard disk and drive is a single unit. It includes the hard disk, the motor that spins the platters, and a set of read/write heads. The terms hard disk and hard drive are used interchangeably as the drive and disk cannot be separated. These Stack of surfaces keeps the read and write head (each surface has on read/write head) to read and write data from and to surface. In there are pack of 5 discs with two surfaces each side then there will be 10 surfaces to store data. The number of read/write head will be equal to number of surfaces used for storage purpose.
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Magnetic discs are the most popular direct access medium. The capacity of the magnetic disk is much larger than the floppy disk. Normal capacity of the floppy disk is 1.44 MB whereas in present days the magnetic disk which is popularly called as hard disk is of 200 GB to 500 GB, 1 Terra byte or more. Performance wise also the magnetic disk will access the data at much higher speed than the floppy because of its hard metal surfaces the rotational speed of magnetic disk is much higher than floppy disk. The hard disk spins 3600 rpm and 7200 rpm instead of floppy diskettes 300 rpm. Magnetic disks are packed in the air tight vacuum chamber to make it more reliable and less prone to damage because of its non exposure to dust, air, moisture etc,. 1.8.2.1 Data Storage Not only do hard disks pack data more closely together, they also hold more data, because they often include several platters, stacked one on top of another. To the computer system, this configuration just means that the disk has more than two sides; in addition to a side 0 and side1, there are sides 2, 3, 4 and so on. Some hard disk drives hold as many as 12 sides, but both sides of the disks are not always used. With hard disks, the number of read/write heads specifies the number of sides that the disk uses.
Hard Disk For example, a particular hard disk drive might have six disk platters (that is, 12 sides), but only eleven heads, indicating that one side is not used to store data. Often, this is the bottom side of the bottom
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disk.
The computation of a hard disks capacity is identical to that for floppy diskettes-but the numbers are larger. The breakdown of the storage capacity for a disk is given below: Storage Capacity = No. of recording platters x No. of tracks per platter x No. of sectors per track x No. of bytes per sector. For Example, a disk has 12 plates each having 3000 tracks. Each track is having 200 sectors per track, and each sector can store 512 bytes. The total recording surface would be 11 (total 22 recording surfaces, 11 x 2) since upper and lower disk surface does not have recording (r/w) heads. Total storage capacity = 22 x 3000 x 200 x 512 i.e.675,840,0000 bytes which is equivalent to approximately 6 GB of data.
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The time required to access any data from disk is known as access time. This time is made with three components. 1. Seek Time: Time taken by read/Write head to move itself from its present position (track) to position from which data is to be accessed.
Read/Write head moving from one track to another 2. Rotational Time: Time taken by disk to move itself rotationally and position the start point of data under the head. Average Rotational time or Latency time is equal to the time taken in half of disk rotation. 3. Data Transfer Time: Time taken to transfer the read data from secondary storage to primary memory. The total of these three components is known as the access time and typically ranges from, 8 to 12 milliseconds.
1.8.2.2 Advantages and disadvantages of magnetic disk The hard disk is most popular auxiliary storage which is used in almost all the micro and personal computers, notepads, laptops etc,. Inspite of its popularity and advantages it has its own disadvantages. Below are the advantages and disadvantages of the Magnetic disk. The advantages of magnetic disk include: 1. Magnetic rigid disk is direct access storage medium; therefore, individual records can be retrieved without searching through the entire file. 2. The costs of disks are steadily declining.
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3. For real-time systems where direct access is required, disks are currently the only practical means of file storage. Other new types of storage, such as bubble storage, are not widely used yet. 4. Records can be readily updated by writing the new information over the area where the old information was stored (Overwriting of the old data). 5. With removable disk packs, a single disk drive can store large quantities of data although all but one of the disks is offline at any given point in time. However, being offline is not a disadvantage for many applications, especially batch applications. 6. Interrelated files stored on magnetic disk can allow a single transaction to be processed against all of these files simultaneously, without reentry and reprocessing of instructions.
The Disadvantages of magnetic disk include: 1. Security of information stored on magnetic disks which are used as shared, is major concern. 2. Regular 'head' crashes can damage the surface of the disk, leading to loss of data in that sector. 3. When new data is stored in magnetic disk, it is stored with a technique known as overlaying in which new data is stored on old data as a new layer; this will erase the old data. With this type of storage we lack in Audit Trail of previous stored data. 4. Magnetic disk is generally fixed into cabinet and connected to the mother board through cables, so it cannot be moved so easily from one place to another. 1.8.3 Optical Laser Disks These are capable of storing vast amount of data, these uses the laser beams instead of read/write head. One laser beam writes the data on to the recording surface and another laser beam is used to read the data. These are highly reliable, compact in size and inexpensive. These disks are circular in shape and divided into tracks, normally contain large no. of tracks. These are sequential storage and direct access medium that is one can access any of the tracks on the disk directly. The below are the categories of Optical laser disks, CD ROM disks; WORM disks, DVD, and Blu-Ray 1. CD ROM: This one is the most popular type of optical disk in the market. First of all invented by Phillips Company, initially these memories were used for audio data for recording and distribution music. But very
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soon CDs become very popular medium to store and retrieve computer data because of its high capacity, high reliability and low cost. Most of the compact disks in the market are read only disks. That is once data is written on these disk cannot be altered. CDs are very inexpensive medium to store large amount of data, a CD cost 10/- can store data of 650 MB. CDs have become universal memories for distributing software. CDs are used for storing all types of data like audio, video, text or any other type of commercial data. Because of its low cost and high reliability it is used as universal portable type of memory for transferring software and data from one place to another. Now a days CD manufacturer has also introduced the CD-RW that is compact disk Rewritable which allow a CD to be written again and again just like floppy. CD RW are similar to floppy features but has additional high storage capacity and more reliability and retaining capability of data. Internet becoming more and more usable medium for sharing information and information containing lot of graphics which require high memory capacity. In order to save these high memory data for longer duration of time the CD-RW would become a necessity and would replace the use of floppy disk. Finally, we can say CD has gone following technological changes CD-ROM (Compact disk Read Only Memory) known as Pre-recorded CD CD-R (Compact disk Recordable) known as once recordable CD CD-RW (Compact disk Rewritable) known as Rewritable CD Companies like Samsung, LG, manufacture the CD-ROM drive and CD Writer. 2. WORM Disks: These are optical memories known as Write once Read Many Times Disks. These memories are like CD-R and used for storage of historical data permanently. These disks used to have approx 200 MB capacity for storage of text and image data. Access times for CD-ROM and WORM drives tend to be quite slow by hard disk drive standards, ranging from 100 to 300 milliseconds. Another popular application of WORM disks is in information systems that require the merging of text and images that do not change for a period of time. A good example is an electronic catalogue
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3. Magneto-Optical Disks and Drives: This Disk integrates the technology of both optical and magnetic disks. The disk has the advantage of optical disk of large capacity and re-writable advantage of magnetic disk. Magneto-optical disk can store approx 1000 MB of data. The drive required for this disk reading and writing is magneto optical drive. This disk is not a popular storage medium and not much in use due to its high cost. For rewriting the data on magneto optical disk the data can be erased first and write new data or as in hard drive new data can be written by overwriting the old data which provides a fast data storage.
4. DVD (Digital Versatile Disks or Digital Video Disk): This one is most popular invention in the family of optical disk. These memories absolutely resemble like CD but can store much large amount of data than CD. These memories can store and reproduce the data particularly graphics and video data with a very high quality in comparison to CD. DVD surfaces are divided into Tracks and one can access any of these tracks in no time that is access rate of DVD is much higher than the floppy. Unlike CD, DVD can store the data on both sides and can have two layer on each side to give larger capacity. One DVD can store upto 17 GB capacity. There are predictions that DVD would replace hard disk as storage media because of its high capacity, reliability and quality. Right now most of the use of DVD is in storing audio and video data for various applications, like in entertainment industry and various industrial training applications. Similar to CD evolutions, DVD has also undergone technological improvements from DVD (Read only) to DVD RW. DVD (Digital Video Disk) this is Read only storage medium DVD-R (Digital Video Disk Recordable) this can be recorded only one time. DVD-RW (Digital Video Disk Rewritable) known as rewritable DVD. Various types of DVDs can be used for storing images, text, movies, high resolution graphics etc. 1. DVD-5 holds 4.7 GB data and is supported by the DVD+R/RW and DVD-R/RW formats. It is also known as Single-Sided Single Layer.
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2. DVD-10 holds 8.75 GB data and is supported by the DVD+R/RW and DVD-R/RW formats. It is also known as Double-Sided Single Layer. 3. DVD-9 holds 8.5 GB data and is supported by the DVD+R and DVD-R formats. It is also known as Single-Sided Double Layer (sometimes called Dual Layer). The official names are DVD-R DL and DVD+R DL. 4. DVD-18 holds 15.9 GB data and is supported by the DVD+R format. It is also known as DoubleSided Double Layer (or Double-Sided Dual Layer).
Video disks were first introduced in 1983, as a video game product. Today, however, they can provide companies with a competitive advantage. Various usage of DVD has been described which caters the needs of present day requirements. 1 Video disk systems were developed to help real estate agents conduct better searches for homes and properties for their clients. 2 Video disks are widely used for training applications. At a growing number of companies Ford, chrysler, Xerox, Pfizer, and Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance, to name just a few-video disk systems take on such training tasks as showing how to boost factory performance, helping service technicians do a safer and better job, and training clerks to analyze insurance applications. The U.S. Army has also made extensive use of video disks for training purposes. 3 Video disks are also used by automobile manufacturers to show their lines and by travel agents to interest clients in resorts. 4 Product Catalogues - This saves money on postage and printing for the company. 5 Shops and post offices - Shops and post offices have small TVs showing promotions and local businesses. They serve as a marketing tool. 6 Business Presentations - Some businesses have started to use the power of DVD to show more aesthetically pleasing presentations. These presentations provide a very professional outlook for the busi-
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ness and allow the company to save pictures, text, graphics; video and audio - all of which can be very large in file size. 7 VHS to DVD Conversion - Converting old training videos to DVD is a good practice. This is because videos have a limited life span. Eventually the quality is reduced, making it very unpleasant to watch. Also, if all videos were converted to DVD, the old training videos could be destroyed. This will make more office space as DVDs take far less space than a VHS video. 8 Legal - DVDs are becoming a tool in the legal profession. DVDs are being used to record video evidence of a witness. These are used if a witness would like to remain anonymous. This type of evidence is used a lot in high profile cases, where there can be repercussions to the witnesses. 9 Trade Show Demonstrations - For a business to attract crowds, DVDs helps in performing the same. DVDs could be used to show demonstrations to the crowds. After all, a product will very unlikely sell unless if a demonstration of some sort is shown. A DVD is an excellent tool to show off a product demonstration. 10 Magazine/Programme DVDs - Magazines and programmes are now being converted to DVD format. A consumer will almost always rather see an interview with a pop star for example, rather than read it. 5. Blu Ray Disc : Known as Blu-ray Disc (BD), is the name of a next-generation optical disc format jointly developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), a group of the world's leading consumer electronics, personal computer and media manufacturers .The format was developed to enable recording, rewriting and playback of high definition video (HD), as well as storing large amounts of data. The format offers more than five times the storage capacity of traditional DVDs and can hold up to 25 GB on a single-layer disc and 50 GB on a dual-layer disc. This extra capacity combined with the use of advanced video and audio codes that will offer consumers an unprecedented HD experience. While current optical disc technologies such as DVD, DVDR, DVDRW, and DVD-RAM rely on a red laser to read and write data, the new format uses a blue-violet laser instead, hence the name Bluray.
The benefit of using a blue-violet laser (405nm) is that it has a shorter wavelength than a red laser (650nm), which makes it possible to focus the laser spot with even greater precision. This allows data to be packed more tightly and stored in less space, so it's possible to fit more data on the disc even though it's the same size as a CD/DVD. This together with the change of numerical aperture to 0.85 is what enables Blu-ray Discs to hold 25 GB/50 GB data. Recent development by Pioneer has pushed the storage capacity to 500 GB data on a single disc by using 20 layers.
Some analysts suggest that the biggest obstacle to replacing DVD is due to its installed base; a large majority of consumers are satisfied with DVDs.
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1.8.4 Magnetic Tape and Tape Cartridge or Tape Devices The magnetic tape is a continuous length polyester film coated with magnetic material. It is a sequential data storage and access media. The tape is normally of 2400 ft. in length and in width. The full length of tape is divided in tracks it can be 7 tracks if coding system is BCD, 6 for code 1 for parity bit, 8 tracks for ASCII and 9 tracks for EBCDIC. New technology magnetic tapes are coming with multiple tracks like 32 tracks for ASCII for faster transfer of data. Recording densities of tapes are represented as Bytes per inch (bpi). The storage space to store one character on tape is known as frame and number of frames together will make record and number of records makes a structure called as block. After every block there is gap (Inter Block Gap) or Stop/Start gap. This gap is provided so that tape can read a block of data and stop for while to transfer the data read into CPU and then start reading again next block. Some important terms used in magnetic tape. 1. IBG (Inter Block Gap): The gap for Start/Stop operation of tap while reading the data. 2. RM (Record Mark): A small gap provided for variable length record structure to distinguish between two records. 3. Tape Mark: If more than two files are placed on a tape, then the gap between the files is called Tape mark. 4. Blocking: Placing of so many records together in a block. 5. De-blocking: Separating records from block. Here we will look at the two most popular forms of magnetic tape for large system MIS applications: Detachable reel magnetic tapes and Tape cartridges.
1. Detachable Reel Tape: This is an old magnetic tape technology and in this two open spools are used, one spool used to supply the tape and other spool takes up the tape. An empty take-up reel, run-
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ning at the same speed as the supply reel on which the tape is initially wound, accepts the tape as it is being processed. The tape is processed by passing it under read/write heads located between the two reels. Depending on the instructions given to the computer system, data can then either be read from the tape or written to it. Detachable Magnetic Reel Tapes
2. Tape Cartridge: Cartridge tapes represent the leading edge of tape technology. Tape cartridges are available for both large and small computer systems. The Tape Cartridges are like Audio cassettes. These are also known as streaming tape. In 1986, IBM introduced Tape cartridge system. Tapes are small in size and can store large amount of data than conventional detachable reel tape. Each of these cartridges has a capacity of 200 MB and a data-transfer rate of 3 MB/Sec and further models tape drives ranging from 800 MB to 60 GB of storage capacity. These tapes have 32 or 36 tracks depending on the coding system. To use a tape cartridge a Tape cartridge drive is required in the computer. Examples - Tape Recorders, used to play the Audio or VCD players used for Videos and also.
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Case Study 1 The Xerox People Net Story- Use of Information Technology in Business organisation. Background With revenues of $ 18.7 billion in the year 2000, Xerox is a global leader in the document management business. The company offers a vast range of document products, services and solutions in association with its joint-venture partner, Fuji Xerox Co. Ltd. of Japan. The products include digital printing and publishing systems; digital multifunction devices and copiers; laser and solid ink printers; fax machines; document-management software; supplies (toner, paper, ink cartridges, etc.); and comprehensive document-management services such as running in-house production centers and developing online document repositories. The Challenges In the early 1990s, Xerox saw media reports commenting that the functioning of the company's HR department was 'hardly a model of efficiency.' The company realized that the fully centralized functions of hiring, awarding bonuses and granting promotions were resulting in the central HR department being over-burdened. More often than not, HR personnel were tied up in paperwork that left them little time to use their skills elsewhere. As a result, tasks such as counseling managers on ways to handle employee problems were frequently postponed by HR managers. Xerox was not happy with its internal job posting process as well. In the existing setup, hiring managers filled in job description forms and sent them to the HR department, where the information was reentered on posting forms. It often took a week before employees could view the job listings, thus delaying the recruitment process considerably. The Solution In 1992, Xerox began to explore the possibilities of using a computer system to release HR professionals from the monotony of administrative tasks. The company decided to install an intranet application to act as a communication and productivity tool for its 50,000 managers and employees. The idea was
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to deliver traditional human resource information such as benefits, compensation, policy manuals, phone directory and training as well as the ability to change personal information like name and address, to minimize the HR administrative support needed by employees. It was thus decided to develop the required HRMS in-house. This marked the beginning of the Xerox PeopleNet initiative. Developing Xerox PeopleNet In June 1993 Xerox began with an internal HR survey to identify the desired objectives of the proposed system. The company's existing infrastructure comprised workstations and the basic networking hardware under a mainframe environment. However, mainframe technologies were not user friendly enough for the typical manager/employee skill set. Also, Xerox was shifting from the existing hardware setup to a personal computer (PC) setup. Therefore, client/server architecture was decided upon as the best choice. The development team along with the company's 'Global Process and Information Management Group' (GP&IM) began establishing the basic application/system standards for a technical framework. Prototyping was used to test different development approaches and design the overall graphical user interface (GUI). The infrastructure support was outsourced from a leading IT services company, Electronic Data Systems. All the software developed was put through strict compatibility testing to ensure that it complied well with other Xerox applications and standard configurations. By the end of 1994, a pilot was developed, which was approved by the company and funds were released for the production version. In January 1995, a read-only version was launched with simple applications. Xerox opted for a phased launch because it was shifting from mainframes to a PC based setup and the developers needed to understand the new infrastructure well before going in for a fullfledged implementation. The project followed a phased development approach of prototyping, testing, re-testing and then rolling out on a continual basis. Visual Basic was selected as the client development tool because of its ability to facilitate prototyping. The Microsoft Access engine acted as the invisible middleware component, which tracked configuration and routing information and stored cached data. To get the software to the users, Xerox adopted various delivery strategies, viz, shipping to local system administrators, using CDs and floppy disks, the company intranet. To access Xerox PeopleNet, employees had to enter both their social security number and a Xerox PIN number. The software used application-level encryption for passwords as well as transmission-level encryption for data traveling over the network. As the company was shifting to a PC-based setup, implementation of the system was rather slow and had to be in a phased manner. As the hardware setup stabilized and more features were added, Xerox PeopleNet became increasingly popular within the organization. The Benefits Xerox PeopleNet supported applications covering such areas as training, retirement fund performance and a corporate phone directory. In addition, employees could check Xerox's stock price as well as those of its competitors. The unique feature of Xerox PeopleNet was that unlike typical HRMSs, it did not restrict the availability of information HR staff alone. All employees could access information through any PC on the company's network. Xerox PeopleNet cost Xerox around $2 million. However,
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its benefits far outweighed the investment. The solution helped Xerox accomplish its objectives of empowering its people, increasing satisfaction and boosting productivity. In addition, online publication of the human resources manual and other publications saved approximately $1.5 million annually in printing costs. Online transaction processing and electronic signature approval capabilities added later saved another $1.1 million annually by eliminating manual forms and paper-based processing. On the hiring front, managers could open the Xerox PeopleNet application on the desktop, create a posting on an online form and post it immediately on a central electronic bulletin board. Any interested Xerox employee could then print an application form and submit it to the hiring manager in paper form. The paper element was to be completely eliminated over a period of time and internal job applications were to be processed entirely online. The system included a feedback feature that let employees suggest new ideas and improvements. As a result, employees were able to monitor their profit sharing and retirement plans and change their contributions from their desktops itself. Interestingly, Xerox PeopleNet seemed to have had certain undesirable results as well. Commenting on the massive layoffs by Xerox during the 1990s, analysts said that so long as software such as Xerox PeopleNet continued to render personnel redundant, the trend of manpower trimming was likely to continue. Case Study 2 NAS Case Study: The International Image Processing Company Overview The International Image Processing Company, or IIP, provides a proprietary digital imaging service to academic, educational, and government institutions throughout the United States. Its computer imaging services provide clients with the ability to transfer physical documents, such as historical books, documents, and newspapers, as well as photographic images, such as historical photos, video images, and medical images, into digital media. The companys clients range from major universities to some of the largest archival government institutions. Despite the scope of its clients, IIP is a small business with less than $5 million in revenues, with plans to grow threefold in five years if it can increase its capacities to bring on more clients. IIP has a small but distributed business organization with headquarters in Texas and major client work sites in New York City, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco. Due to the nature of IIPs work, its IT staff is integrated into the specialized work force that the company employsgiven the digital scanning software and processes that are integral to their work. The company also employs two dedicated IT techniciansone for hardware and another responsible for infrastructure software. Additional IT related activities are handled through the imaging software support and configuration personnel. The company was challenged by its dependencies on storage, created through its software scanning processes that were increasingly exacerbated by new clients. Daily operations could quickly utilize a terabyte of data storage. Because the imaging scanning product was archived to clients using both optical and tape storage devices, if operations ran short on available storage, the imaging processes would slow and eventually stop until sufficient space was freed up for operations. This slowed billing and eventually cash flow.
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The storage situation reached critical levels that started to impact the companys ability to handle new clients and subsequently impacted its planned business growth. IIP was in the classic predicament of needing a high-performance solution, while being restricted by a minimum budget and a limited IT staff. The evaluation of potential storage solutions ranged from storage area networks (SANs) to IDE RAID solutions. While a network attached storage (NAS) solution would satisfy the size requirement, NAS remained a problematic solution because it also had to be managed remotely at the New York, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco sites. IIP chose a general-purpose solution, even though its processes were largely proprietary, which was a matter of thoughtful strategy on IIPs part to utilize standard hardware and OS platforms. The NAS solution was chosen for its ability to integrate easily into a small IP environment, while being able to deploy remotely with some level of remote management. This case study will discuss the IIP storage and related processing problems and challenges in detail. These drove the activities involved in identifying the companys workload and analyzing potential storage solutions. Finally, we discuss how IIP concluded with the decision to implement NAS and the subsequent transition to the new storage model. The Situation Analysis IIP developed its storage solution from years of experience in scanning and duplicating photographic images, ranging from military applications to historical documents. The challenges had always been the time required to scan an image, versus the quality required for large clients. This had given way to the amount of space required for each image, given that the IIP client base dealt with millions of images. The type of work IIP performed was not directed toward the market of flatbed scanners nor even larger scanners in terms of quality and production process requirements. Instead, IIP developed a process and proprietary software that used specialized digital cameras to scan images of various dimensions, physical states, and types-various papers, photographic techniques and types, and so on. The process, coupled with the scanning stations, provided a production-oriented environment where imaging could take place 24/7, if required. The process and software included a fully complete life cycle of imaging capture, correction, and quality assurance before it was placed on a CD or tape for shipment to the client. Clients of IIP had requirements to digitize documents and photographs to provide a wider distribution and availability of these items through the Internet. Consequently, these clients had become part of the growing movement within both the academic community and public sector to save historical documents. For the most part, these markets are just emerging, given the tremendous amount of material that remains to be scanned and digitized. IIP's client requirements could run into the 500,000-plus number of images for a single project. That type of work drove the production-oriented environment introduced by IIP in the late 1990s. IIP Systems Infrastructure IIP maintained a distributed infrastructure with its headquarters in Texas and field locations in New York, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco. Figure A-1 illustrates the configurations at the headquarters' locations. Here you see the integration of capture stations, process servers, correction/quality assurance workstations, database servers, and archive servers. Each field location is set up in an identical fashion. Each is linked to the headquarters' network and web server through a virtual private network
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(VPN). E-mail and FTP services are handled in this manner. Architecturally, this setup was designed for future development of remote scan processing and diagnostic imaging services. The imaging process will describe the storage utilization scenarios and why the process is so datacentric.
Problem Details What IIP had not foreseen were the systems infrastructure requirements for this type of production work. This required the calculation of both processing cycles and, most of all, the amount of storage space that would be needed on a daily operational basis. Because IIP is a small business, it had resisted a formal capacity plan and had relied on its ability to respond quickly when additional capacities were needed. That meant the additional servers were purchased on an 'as-needed' basis, with most of the hardware being 'do-it-yourself' built chassis and motherboard configurations. With this orientation to developing and maintaining the hardware portion of the systems infrastructure, the storage challenges were met with larger and higher speed internal IDE disks. This gave rise to additional server installations that were needed to handle the post scan image processing. This then prompted the acquisition of dedicated media servers to write out the client images using CD or tape media. This is the archival system on the backside of the process .This meant that a faster network was necessary to speed the transmission of scanned raw files to the process servers, and ultimately it placed the problem back at the storage infrastructure once again as the image scans overtook the capacities on the servers. A stopgap effort was a move to IDE RAID to provide adequate storage for the process servers. This was largely driven by the 'do-it-yourself' mode of the hardware and severe limitations of budgets constraints. Although the IDE RAID facilitated a quick fix, IIP's flexibility in providing reliability and backup protection was problematic. In many cases, the volatility of the data movement over the period of one week could easily surpass more than five terabytes running through a single process server. As
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the tremendous write activities continued, the IDE drives generally failed twice a month, with minimal success running data protection with RAID level 1. However, the space it provided offered a brief interlude to the space problems that shut down the process entirely. Given that additional business was coming in with more restrictive time constraints for completion, IIP concluded that a longer term solution had to be found. The Search and Evaluation The IIP hardware and software IT personnel researched the solution along with assistance and input from the imaging software specialist. They found that a SAN was a valid consideration, since it appeared to be the choice of others working with unstructured data such as video and audio projects. However, they found that the imaging system, although proprietary by its methodology, used open and commodity levels of hardware and operating environments and was further open to additional solutions that integrated well into the small business environment. Another alternative was to move to larger process servers with external SCSI drive arrays, to scale up in both process and storage power. Yet another alternative was the consideration of a NAS solution, which would integrate easily with the existing network, would use file systems, and would have the capacity they needed. Estimating the Workload The IT personnel, working with an outside consultant, identify the company workloads. They further moved to understand the types of configuration needed for all three possible alternatives. First looking at the SAN configuration, followed by the larger server with external RAID, and finally the potential NAS configuration. The results are summarized in the following sections. Workload Identification: Looking at a year's history of scanning images, the IIP team concluded that the workload was complex and data-centric, and it fit somewhere between online transaction processing (OLTP) and data warehousing. The workload encompassed OLTP characteristics when scanning the image and then transmitting the write transaction to the process server. Although developed as a synchronous process, it was recently changed to an asynchronous process to facilitate greater throughput at the capture station. However, this still required a sequential write process at the process server as each image was scanned. On average, the image scans were 300MB in size. The calculation of 300 images per shift x 3capture stations working two shifts provided the necessary throughput. It was determined that at least 540GB of free space was needed to accommodate the daily scanning process. This required that the overall storage infrastructure be able to accommodate a 566MB per second throughput rate. Workload Estimates for SAN: we can quickly calculate that the required components for a SAN which could be handled by one, 16port switch, given that a single point of failure is acceptable for the installation; or it could be handled by two, 8-port switches for some level of redundancy. Three HBA adapters with 2 ports each for redundancy and performance would be required for the process servers. However, not to be overlooked, this configuration will require additional Fibre Channel storage arrays to accommodate and be compatible with the new Fibre Channel storage network. Given that the total capacity of 540GB needs to be available every 24 hours, we can estimate that two storage arrays of 500GB each would provide the
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necessary capacity with sufficient free space to handle peak utilization as images are processed through the system. Workload Estimates for Direct Attached Storage: Aligning the requirements to new servers, we find that all the process servers would have to be upgraded. This would also require that the storage capacities be carefully aligned with each process server. Even with this alignment, specific workload affinity would have to be observed to utilize the storage effectively. On the other hand, the process server could more easily share storage across the network but would have to reflect some level of duplication for storage requirements to accommodate the total capacity, essentially doubling the entire storage requirement. This would require, in addition to new servers installed, OS software upgrades, with appropriate maintenance and all the necessary activities of a major system installation. It would result in a normal disruption of service and reliability characterized by new system installations. However, the new servers would have to be configured to handle the I/O throughput of an aggregate of 566MB per second. This would require each server to handle 188MB per second if the workload is evenly distributed, which in most cases will not be the case; however, we will use this for estimating purposes. That relates to a minimum of six Ultra-wide SCSI-3 adapters necessary to handle the sustained rate of 188MB per second. This requires the total storage to be divided among the servers, and subsequently the adapters, and places a limitation of approximately 120GB per Logical Unit Number. Thus, a more complex management problem in terms of flexibility of reconfiguration based on required storage would be necessary, given that one capture station could generate 180GB of images every 24 hours. Workload Estimates for NAS: We can calculate that our workload requirements are definitely within the mid-range NAS device configuration and probably just under the enterprise NAS solutions. We can select mid-range even though our sizing factor is within the enterprise range. This is based on the special application circumstances and because the aggregate data is below a terabyte and would be physically segmented within the aggregate data capacity estimate. In addition, we considered the workload being further characterized by limited users working with an almost dedicated Gigabit Ethernet network. The NAS solutions also offer the flexibility of storage incremental selection-for example, installing two large NAS servers and one small server, or one large and two medium-sized servers. These solutions also provide the flexibility of RAID processing, network compatibility, and non-disruption to the existing server configurations. In addition, these solutions can be easily configurable to support the scanning projects and mapped as network drives with the same flexibility. They will also provide a closed, yet remotely accessible, solution for the remote network configurations. One last word on our estimating process: We recognize the characteristics of the small integrated IT staff and the company's lack of any formal capacity planning activities. The process of workload identi-
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fication and estimates provides this company a level of direction and planning. The result of this exercise has identified that the mid-range NAS devices can meet the company's workload now and within a limited planning period. However, it also provides an insight into future challenges IIP will encounter, as its staff has become aware that it borders on moving into enterprise solutions of either the NAS type or probably a SAN if the budget for infrastructure can support either. The IIP NAS Solution The final configuration provides increased storage capacity and enhanced performance. The IIP scanning process is now being up-scaled with new customers and imaging projects. In addition, the space is being utilized on an automated basis from new project initiation to deletion after delivery. Figure A-3 illustrates the NAS configurations that support the revised IIP systems infrastructure.
Figure A-3s NAS configuration illustrates the increased capacity for storage of images, but it also provides the foundation for image access through the Internet. This was designed into the system to allow the remote work sites that have identical installations to upgrade to NAS devices. Over and above the increased capacity at all sites will be the potential ability to access images across the IIP storage network infrastructure. In other words, images scanned in New York could be evaluated in Texas, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, or other remote offices as they begin operation. This is an added business efficiency that takes advantage of the imaging expertise across the company without regard to location. It also allows clients eventually to be provided test and quality images through the Internet to further facilitate the delivery and client acceptance process. In summary, the NAS solution turned out to be a good fit for IIP. Even though its application appeared to have many proprietary processes and software processes, NAS operated within the bounds of leveraging commodity infrastructures for networks, systems, and storage. With the exception of the database server, all the servers within the IIP infrastructure now share the available storage in the NAS devices. The acknowledgment of this value further expands the use of the NAS solution as the company began to configure its web and imaging software code development on the NAS devices.
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The NAS solution for IIP provided a cost-effective solution for a small company, but it also provided the company with the necessary storage resources for expanding its business, which had grown dependent on a storage-centric product. The companys storage infrastructure is now poised to grow into the future with either more sophisticated products such as a SAN, or to continue to scale economically with further uses of NAS devices. Either way, IIP now has the business flexibility to meet the growing dynamics of the imaging business. MULTIPLES CHOICE QUESTIONS 1. Who was the inventor of First fully programmable mechanical computer called Analytical Engine? a) Charles Babbage b) Herman Hollerith c) Blaise Pascal d) Howard H. Aiken 2. Which one was the first General purpose electronic Computer? a) UNIVAC b) EDVAC c) ENIAC d) None of the Above 3. Which Technology was used in Third Generations of Computers? a) Vacuum Tubes b) Transistors c) Integrated Circuits d) None of the above 4. The ___________generation of computers are able to perform voice recognition a) Second b) Third c) Fourth d) Fifth 5. A computer that performs calculations and logical operations with quantities represented at digits is known of _______ a) Analog computer b) Digital computer c) Hybrid computer d) None of the Above 6. Mark 1 is a type of _____________ a) Supercomputer b) Mainframe computer c) Mini computer d) Micro computer 7. The processing speed of the super computers can be measured in a) FLOPS b) TFLOPS c) PFLOPS d) All of the above 8. Workstation is used which kind of CPU architecture? a) CISC b) RISC c) SISC d) None of the above
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9. _________runs on a network of computers and enable sharing of printers and other equipment between various computers on the network a) Sever b) Processor c) Workstations d) Peripheral Device 10. Which of the following is an example of volatile memory? a) ROM b) PROM c) SDRAM d) None of the above 11. CPU chip is made of __________ a) Carbon b) Copper c) Silica d) None of the above 12. Which of the following units performs the calculations and comparison/decision activities? a) Control unit b) ALU c) Output unit d) Storage unit 13. Which unit is responsible to interpret the instructions provided by the other units? a) ALU b) CPU c) Control unit d) None of the above 14. The processing speed of CPU can be measured in _________ a) MB b) KB c) GB d) MHZ 15. Which of these is the fastest memory type? a) Primary cache b) Secondary cache c) Main memory d) None of the above 16. A small chip on the motherboard that loads the hardware setting used for keyboard, monitors, or disk drives is called _________. a) CMOS b) PCI c) BIOS d) None of the above 17. Which storage system is used in enterprise, scientific and business computing? a) Network Attach storage b) Tertiary Storage c) Off-line storage d) None of the above 18. The capacity and performance of the computer system can be measured in terms of _________. a) Storage density b) Latency
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c) Throughput d) All of the above 19. How many transistors and electronic computers a VLSI chips has? a) From 3000 to 100000 electronic component per chip b) From 100000 to 1000000 electronic component per chip c) More than 1 million electronic components per chip d) None of the above 20. Magnetic Disc are categorizes as _________ a) Direct Access medium b) Sequential Access medium c) Index sequential Access medium d) None of the above 21. The time required in positioning a read-write head over the recording track is known as a) Seek Time b) Rotational Time c) Data transfer Time d) None of the above 22. The Disk which is used to store large amount of data using optical laser technology is known as a) CD-ROM Disk b) Magnetic Disk c) Both A & B d) None of the above 23. The optical disk which is used to store large amount of data, including songs, movies and, Pictures of high quality is called ___________. a) CD-ROM b) Magneto Optical Discs c) Digital Video Disk d) None of the above 24. A Disk which uses both magnetic are optical Technology to obtain high data density ranges from 100 MB to 9 GM of data storage is known as ________ a) Worm Disk b) Magneto-Optical Disk c) Digital Video Disk d) None of the above 25. The High Definition experience of storing the data on the disk that can store upto 50 GB data on both side of the disk in known as ________. a) Blue Disk b) Red Disk c) Blu-ray disk d) Red-ray disk Answer: 1. a 2. c 3. c 4. d 5. b 6. b 7. d 8. b 9. a 10. c 11. c 12. b 13. c 14. d 15. a 16. c 17. b 18. d 19. b 20. a 21. a 22. b 23. c 24. b 25. c SELF-EXAMINATION QUESTIONS
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1. Describe in detail various generations of computers. 2. Write short notes on the following types of computers:(i) Digital computer (ii) Analog computer (iii) Hybrid computer (iv) Super computer (v) Mainframe computer (vi) Mini computer (vii) Micro computer (viii) Workstations (ix) Server 3. Discuss advantages and limitations of computer system. 4. Draw the schematic diagram of a computer. Briefly discuss each of the components covered in it. 5. What are the features of the Central Processing Unit? 7. Discuss various components of a motherboard. 8. What do you understand by the term 'Bus'? Discuss three types of bus available on a computer. 9. Discuss, in brief, various types of storage used for storing the data in computer. 11. Write short notes on the following: (i) Integrated Circuits (ii) RAM (iii) ROM (iv) Bubble memory (v) Flash memory 12. Write short note on floppy diskette as an input medium. 13. What are the factors that determine the number of characters that can be stored in a floppy diskette? 14. Differentiate between floppy diskettes and hard disks. 15. Briefly explain the various characteristics of a hard disk. 16. What are the advantages and disadvantages of direct access storage? 17. A disk has 24 plates, each having 2000 tracks. Each track is divided into 100 sectors per track, and each sector can store 1024 bytes. Calculate the total no. of bytes (GB) a disk can store on both sides of the disk surface. 18. Explain the following terms: (i) CD-ROM (ii) WORM disk (iii) Magneto Optical Disks (iv) Digital Video Disk (v) Blu-ray Disk (vi) Detachable Reel Magnetic Tape (vii) Tape Cartridge Systems CASE BASED QUESTIONS 1. Dr. Kartik is the director of an autonomous institute of Weather and Economic forecasting. He is planning to setup a new state of art research centre for weather forecasting that would predict the economic growth of the country based on agriculture production. He is also planning to setup an educational institute for students of weather and economic research, providing bachelors, masters and PhD degree. Dr. Kartik has the responsibility to setup the centre. He is involved in planning, coordinating, controlling and administrating all the activities including building and infrastructural facilities, pur-
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chasing hardware and other equipments and so on. He has all the budgetary approval for these facilities. Exercise a) What type of computers should Dr. Kartik procure for the research centre for weather and economic forecasting and Why? b) What type of computers should Dr. Kartik procure for the education institute for weather and economic forecasting and Why? c) What will be the budgetary implication of decisions to procure computer systems by Dr. Kartik. Explain. 2. Mr. Rahul is working as a Research Officer in Internet based multinational consulting firm in Delhi. His main job is to provide the support to the existing clients and gather the information about future clients so that company would be able to give necessary clientele support in near future. For the purpose of making MIS reports on daily basis, it is very much required to connect to the people providing blogs over internet all the time, the system must be very fast and efficient enough to respond quickly and also equip with latest technology to work upon various application in integrated environment. Earlier he was working with PIII computer with 80GB HDD, 256 RAM, CD_ROM,1.44 inch Floppy drive, Color Monitor and Internet Dialup connection. The performance was not so good over the years. Mr. rahul has requested to provide new computer system with latest technology. The company has given the approval to purchase a new system with latest configuration with minimum price. Rahul has started searching various computers in the market ranging from Rs. 20000 to Rs. 50000 based on whether they are branded or configured. Exercise a) What type of computer system Mr. Rahul would like to purchase? Is there any specific type of computer is available in the market? Explain. b) What type of configuration Mr. Rahul would like to see and take the decision to purchase the system that satisfy the requirements of his job responsibility ? Explain. c) What will be the budgetary implication of decisions to procure computer systems by Mr. Rahul ?Explain.

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Below is a sample picture of Punched cards

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Clock Speed: Measurement of Instruction processing speed of CPU

Cache Memory: Internal Memory of CPU

CPUs Slot & Socket: Holder of CPU on Mother Board

Density: No. Of Transistors in CPU

Lets have a look at the picture of CPU cabinet

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View of Ports & Connectors

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2. RAM (Random Access Memory):

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Tracks & Sectors

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