Different Types of

Storage Devices
Submitted By:
Deelip Khanal
www.deelipk.com
References
uStoragereview.com

uWikipedia.org

uAbout.com

uIntroduction to Computers(Peter

uHelium.com
Magnetic Tape
• Introduction:
•
• Magnetic tape has been used for data storage for over 50
years. Magnetic tapes are available in the form of different
formulations and packaging which we widely know as
magnetic storage device in general.
•
• Magnetic tape as its name says consists of magnetic coating.
A narrow plastic strip is coated lightly by magnets which is the
foundation of magnetic Tape.
•
History & Early
Use
Magnetic Tape was first developed in Germany which
revolutionized the broadcasting and recording industry.

The recorded radio and television program

broadcasting made possible only after the invention of
magnetic tape. Before that radio and television
broadcasting used to be all live because of there was
no medium to record a program to show later.

Before magnetic tape, gramophones were used for

recording but they were recorded in one take. Magnetic
tape made it possible for the recordings to be created
Use in Computer Storage
•The use of magnetic tape for computer data storage has
been one of the constants of the computer industry. In all
formats, a tape drive uses precisely-controlled motors to
wind the tape from one reel to another, passing a tape
head as it does.

•Magnetic tape was first used to record computer data in

1951 on the Eckert-Mauchly UNIVAC I. The recording
medium was a thin strip of one half inch (12.65 mm) wide
metal, consisting of nickel-plated bronze (called Vicalloy).
Recording density was 128 characters per inch (198
•The major advantage of magnetic tape
drive is its lower cost per bit.
•The highest capacity tape media are
generally on the same order as the largest
available disk drives (about 1 TB in 2007.)
•Tape has historically offered enough
advantage in cost over disk storage to make
it a viable product, particularly for backup,
where media removability is necessary.
Use in Computer Storage
•Tape storage has always been used with large computer
systems. Modern usage is primarily as a high capacity
medium for backups and archives.
•As of 2008, the highest capacity tape cartridges (Sun
StorageTek T10000B, IBM TS1130) can store 1 TB of data
without using compression.
Solid State Storage Device
•A solid-state drive (SSD) is a data storage device that
uses solid-state memory to store persistent data. A SSD
emulates a hard disk drive interface, thus easily
replacing it in most applications.Solid State Device either
uses DRAM or Flash Memory. An SSD using SRAM or
DRAM (instead of flash memory) is often called a RAM-
drive.

•The original usage of the term solid-state (from solid-

state physics) refers to the use of semiconductor devices
rather than electron tubes, but in this context, has been
adopted to distinguish solid-state electronics from
electromechanical devices as well. With no moving parts,
solid-state drives are less fragile than hard disks and are
•SSDs have begun to appear in laptops, although
as of 2009 they are substantially more expensive
per unit of capacity than hard drives.
Figure: ADTRON Solid
Storage Drive
Figure: Picture of a Figure: Illustration on how magnetic
Magnetic HDD HDD works
Need of SSD
Magnetic storage device consists of a read write head
and the platter. The platter has to spin to bring the area
to be written under the read write head in order to write
or read data.

We can easily understand that it takes some time. Some

milliseconds spend while a part of the platter travels to
the right place to be rewritten a piece of data and we
can assume how long does it take when a piece of data
is accessed at the same time from lots of computer.

At the top of that magnetic hard drive stores the data

randomly which makes the head move back and forth to
its needed location, which further increases the time,
consumed. Especially in the websites and other
computer operations there could be millions of people
who are accessing the data from storage.

According to reports the fastest hard disk takes 5

milliseconds to for this propose. Now take Google’s
SSD is to Rescue HDD
As its names suggest Solid State Disk doesn’t spin like
conventional magnetic disk. It does not use any physical
arm which we call read write head like in magnetic storage.
It instead uses Flash Memory to read and write data. Flash
memory is an EEPROM which consists of number of NAND
and NOR logic gates.

The very reason SSD doesn’t need its read/write head to

read and write by moving back and forth in the platter, it
saves the time, which an operation looses while operating in
the magnetic disks. And that’s why we can call SSD was
History
Solid State Storage was invented long ago, however it
was immediately replaced by cheaper drum storage
units.

First modern type SSD was developed by Storagetek

in 1978.

In the mid-1980s Santa Clara Systems introduced

BatRam, an array of 1 megabit RAM Chips and a
custom controller card that emulated a hard disk.

In 2007 small notebooks started using SSDs of a few

gigabytes capacity .

The SSD with the highest capacity now has 1 TB and

developed by PureSilicon. Before that it was 640GB
and was developed by ioDrive. Toshiba has announced
that it will produces a SSD of 512 GB beginning 2001.

Although SSD has not yet gain mainstream popularity,

with the trend of achieving high capacity into solid
state drives It is expected to replace the traditional
Two Types of SSD
Flash Based
•Most SSD manufacturers use non-volatile flash memory to
create more rugged and compact devices for the consumer
market. These flash memory-based SSDs, also known as flash
drives, do not require batteries. Non-volatility allows flash SSDs
to retain memory even during sudden power outages, ensuring
data persistence. It performs better than conventional hard disks
because of its negligible seek time.
•Capacitors are used for the storage of the data or some form of
battery. Cache is also used in SSD which operates in the same
way cache works in Hard Disk. Cache is made of DRAM.

DRAM Based
•SSDs based on volatile memory such as DRAM are characterized
by ultra fast data access and are used primarily to accelerate
applications that would otherwise be held back by the latency of
Flash SDDs or traditional
•DRAM-based HDDs.
SSDsusually incorporate internal battery
and backup storage systems to ensure data persistence
while no power is being supplied to the drive from
external sources. If power is lost, the battery provides
power while all information is copied from random
access memory (RAM) to back-up storage. When the
power is restored, the information is copied back to the
Current Uses
qRecently SSD has been being used in few potable
laptops and and ultra mobile PCs with additional prices.

qOne of the first mainstream releases of SSD was the

XO Laptop, built as part of the 'One Laptop Per Child'
project. Mass production of these computers, built for
children in developing countries, began in December
2007. These machines use 1024 MiB SLC NAND flash as
primary storage which is considered more suitable for
the harsher than normal conditions in which they are
expected to be used.

qAsus also uses 2,4 and 8 GB of Flash Storage in their

Eee PC subnotebooks.

qApples has recently started providing Flash storage

for additional charge. Apple provides this model of
computer with 120 GB of solid state drive for additional
550 USD.

qLenovo ThinkPad X300 with a 64Gbyte SSD is

Advantages Over Normal
HDD
# Faster start-up, as no spin-up is required (RAM &
Flash).

# Typically, fast random access for reading, as there is

no read/write head to move (RAM & Flash).

#No noise: a lack of moving parts makes SSDs

completely silent.

#For low-capacity flash SSDs, low power consumption

and heat production when in active use, although
high-end SSDs and DRAM-based SSDs may have
significantly higher power requirements (Flash).

#High mechanical reliability, as the lack of moving

parts almost eliminates the risk of mechanical failure
(RAM & Flash).

#Larger range of operating temperatures. Typical hard

drives have an operating range of 5-55 degrees C.
Disadvantages of SSD
#Cost: As of mid-2008, SSD prices are still
considerably higher per gigabyte than are
comparable conventional hard drives: consumer
grade drives are typically US$2.00 to US$3.45 per
GB[10][21] for flash drives and over US$80.00 per
GB for RAM-based compared to about US$0.38 or
less per gigabyte for hard drives.

# Capacity: Capacity of SSD is as of now far lower

than the conventional HDD however the storage
capacity is expected to increases rapidly.

#Lower storage density: Hard disks can store

more data per unit volume than DRAM or flash
SSDs, except for very low capacity/small devices.

#Power: DRAM based SSD require more power

than hard disks, when operating; and they still use
power when the computer is turned off, while hard
Future of SSD
As of now Windows Operating system is not optimized for
SSD. Windows has long history and they haven’t really
focused on other than magneto-mechanical HDDs.
However Windows OS7 is said to be optimized for Solid
Storage Devices which is still in beta stage.

As the popularity of SSD is rising the upcoming version of

all Operation Sytesms including Windows, Linux and Mac
OSX is expected to be optimized for Solid Storage
Flash Storage Devices
Flash Storage is pretty much same as solid storage devices.
The main deference is flash storage is designed for more
portability. Flash storage comes is smaller sizes. Pen drives
and memory cards are the example of flash storage.

In fact flash storage is component of one of the two kind of

Solid State Storage.

This is partially true as solid state drives and USB flash drives
both use the same type of non-volatile memory chips that
retain their information even when they have no power.

Flash drive is designed to be external to

the computer system, an SSD is designed
to reside inside the computer in place of a
more traditional hard drive.
 Characteristics of Flash
Storage
Flash storage is non-volatile.

Flash storage comes in very portable size.

Some of the forms of Flash Storage Device is Pen Drive,

Memory Cards.

Flash memory is also used as secondary memory is

some ultra-portable computer as well as PDAs.

Flash memory is sometimes called Flash RAM.

USB Flash Storage
USB flash drive consists of a NAND-type flash memory
data storage device integrated with a USB (universal
serial bus) interface. USB flash drives are typically
removable and rewritable, much smaller than a floppy
disk (1 to 4 inches or 2.5 to 10 cm), and most USB flash
drives weigh less than an ounce [1]. Storage capacities
typically range from 64 MB to 64 GB[2] with steady
improvements in size and price per gigabyte. Some allow
1 million write or erase cycles[3][4] and have 10-year
data USB flash drives
retention,[5] offer potential
connected by USBadvantages over
1.1 or USB 2.0.
other portable storage devices, particularly the
floppy disk. They have a more compact shape,
operate faster, hold much more data, have a more
durable design, and operate more reliably due to
their lack of moving parts. Additionally, it has
become increasingly common for computers to be
sold without floppy disk drives. USB ports, on the
other hand, appear on almost every current[update]
mainstream PC and laptop. These types of drives
use the USB mass storage standard, supported
natively by modern operating systems such as
Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and other Unix-like
systems. USB drives with USB 2.0 support can also
Memory Cards
A memory card or flash memory card is a solid-state
electronic flash memory data storage device used with
digital cameras, handheld and Mobile computers,
telephones, music players, video game consoles, and other
electronics. They offer high re-record-ability, power-free
storage, small form factor, and rugged environmental
specifications.

There are many different types of memory cards and jobs

they are used for. Some common places include in digital
cameras, game consoles, cell phones, and industrial
applications. PC card (PCMCIA) were among first commercial
memory card formats (type I cards) to come out in the
1990s, but are now only mainly used in industrial
Many video game consoles have used
proprietary solid-state memory cards to store
data. In recent years read-only optical discs
have replaced these memory cards in most
current home console systems. However most
portable gaming systems still rely on custom
memory cartridges, due to their low power
consumption, smaller physical size and
reduced mechanical complexity. Microsoft
XBOX, Nitendo and Sony Playstationsare some
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