SLR 3/ Input, Output and Storage

Question 1

Name some Input Devices

Answer 1

-Microphone
-Keyboard
-Mouse
-Webcam

Question 2

Name some Output Devices

Answer 2

-Speakers
-Headphones
-Projector

Question 3

Name the 3 main forms of Secondary Storage

Answer 3

-Magnetic
-Solid-State
-Optical

Question 4

Features of Magnetic Storage

Answer 4

Advantages: Cheaper, vast storage capacity.
Disadvantage: Lots of moving parts reduce durability, slow access
Uses: Personal computers, mainframes, storages of vast quantities of data.
They have a drive head which physically moves over the disk. This is a moving part. It reads the disk using magnets with 0s and 1s.

Question 5

Features of Solid-State Storage

Answer 5

Uses: Personal handheld devices, tablets, smartphones, military all-terrain laptops.
No mechanical moving parts.
Uses non-volatile flash memory to store information.
Advantages: Highly durable, very fast read/write speeds, silent operation.
Very fast burst read/write speeds due to data being physically closer and easier to recover.
Disadvantages: Currently expensive, less storage capacity than other devices/limited read/write
Uses a flow of electricity forcing electrons into floating gates. This changes the charge in the gate which can be measured as a 0 or 1

Question 6

Features of Optical

Answer 6

Uses: Songs, videos, multimedia storage, backups
Advantages: Cheap, portable, durable.
Disadvantages: Less storage capacity compared to other types, need appropriate reader/prone to scratches
Laser is shined at the media and processors the reflection of the media. Pits and Lands are created for read only. changes in reflection is how it is read in 0 and 1. Pits cant be changed which is why its read only

Question 7

RAM Meaning and Features

Answer 7

Random Access Memory
-Temporary storage of instructions and data
-Holds information being executed
-Volatile
-Much faster than hard disk

Question 8

ROM meaning and Features

Answer 8

Read-Only Memory
-Small piece of read only memory
-Non Volatile
-Contains the bootstrap program (BIOS)

Question 9

How does RAM work?

Answer 9

When a program is loaded the instructions are loaded into RAM. When a file is opened the data it contains is loaded into RAM. this is necessary for the program to process and run.

Question 10

How does ROM work?

Answer 10

ROM stores all boot-up instructions along with the Basic Input/Output Systems (BIOS). It checks the hardware is all there such as RAM and the Hard drive before loading the OS. This is called Power On Self Test (POST).

Question 11

Define Virtual Storage

Answer 11

-The idea of virtual storage is that the user doesn’t need to worry about where or how their data is being stored.​

-cloud storage. The user has access to some form of online cloud storage drive. They can access their files from a single “virtual” online location using any device that has an internet connection.​

-It still has to be kept physically in some form of data Centre. The data could be stored on magnetic hard drives or solid-state drives. It could even be stored in several different physical locations.

Question 12

Define POST

Answer 12

Power On Self Test
Sends signals to all connected components.
Wakes them up and makes the CPU aware of their existence
CPU can now load into RAM and load the OS

Question 13

Advantages of Virtual Storage

Answer 13

Data can be accessed at any time on any device as long as there is an internet connection
Easier to share files
Unlimited storage

Question 14

Disadvantages of Virtual Storage

Answer 14

Can be very expensive
Requires a good internet connection or data can be slow to access
Data cannot be accessed if their is no internet connection
Data could potentially be lost/stolen if the data Centre has issues or if their has been unauthorized access to the files