Data Representation and

Memory Storage
 Data Representation
How does a computer represent a song? A
picture? A video?
Bits 0s and 1s

So how does a computer represent bits?

 Data Representation

OR Magnetic orientation of the poles of a

magnet represent the state of a bit
 Data Representation
A byte is 8 bits
A byte represents many things in a computer
such as characters, commands, colors, etc.

All computer instructions are done by doing

arithmetic operations on bytes
How to add two numbers in Binary?
 Data Representation
ASCII (American
Standard Code
for Information
Interchange) is
the most widely
used coding
scheme to
represent data
Data Representation
 64 Bit OS vs. a 32 Bit OS
Refers to the size of registers used by your
CPU
Supports more RAM
More efficient
 Memory
Memory consists of electronic components
that store instructions waiting to be executed
by the processor, data needed by those
instructions, and the results of processing the
data
 Memory

Column1 Approximate Number of Bytes Text Pages

Kilobyte 1,000 page
Megabyte 1,000,000 500
Gigabyte 1,000,000,000 500,000
Terabyte 1,000,000,000,000 500,000,000
Petabyte 1,000,000,000,000,000
Exabyte 1,000,000,000,000,000,000
Zettabyte 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
Yotabyte 1E+21,000
 Memory
Two types of memory
Volatile: Program and data when being processed.
Data is lost when power is turned off.
Non-Volatile: Hold configuration information,
basic startup instructions.
Keeps data even without power.
 Storage Capability
Capacity - The amount of data, in bytes, the
storage can hold
Access Time - The amount of time it takes a
storage device to locate an item on a storage
medium
Transfer Rate - The time required to deliver an
item to or from storage to the processor.
 Hard Disk Drives
Contains one or more inflexible, circular
platters that use magnetic particles to store
data, instructions, and information
Hard Disk Drives
 Hard Disk Drives
Circuit board controls the movement of the
head
Small motor spins the platters
Head determines the location of the data
(read or write)
Head motor moves head to position head over
data
 Hard Disk Drive
A head crash occurs when a read/write head
touches the surface of a platter
Hard Disk Drive
 Flash Memory
Non-Volatile
Electronically erased and reprogrammed
Stores information in cells that contain 1 bit
Lower latency, faster, less noisy, less power
consumed, more reliable than hard drives
 Solid State Drives
Uses Flash Memory
 RAM Random Access Memory
Volatile
Many times faster than Hard Disk
 Cache
Used by the CPU to reduce average time to
access memory.
Smaller and faster
than RAM
 Storage Capability
Capacity <
Access Rate >
Transfer Speed> Type General Usage

Cache Memory Items waiting for use by processor

RAM Items waiting for use by processor

Flash Memory System configuration information

Photos, tunes,
Operating system, application
Solid State Drive software, data
Operating system, application
Hard Disk Drive software, data
Movies, music, software to be
Optical Disk installed
Tape Backup copies of data
Capacity >
Access Rate <
Transfer Speed<
 Speed Differences
SSD vs. HDD 10 times faster
Speed Differences
 Cloud Storage
Networked online
storage
Data centers
*Amazon, 2 Years ago
Data is distributed
it is stored at more
locations
 Cloud Storage
Not cost efficient for the average computer
user
More security risks
Download and upload rates
Companies can go bankrupt or be shut down
 Optical Disks and Drives
A disk drive that uses laser light or
electromagnetic waves within or near the
visible light spectrum as part of the process of
reading or writing data to or from optical disks
Photodiodes detects the light
reflection
 Read and Write Disks
To write to an optical disk, use a laser to melt
the crystalline metal alloy
Can be melted back