Storage Technologies

Question 1

What is optical storage?

Answer 1

Optical storage media uses technology such as lasers. Laser beams are projected onto a CD/DVD or Blu-ray disc and if light is reflected back, then data is read as a 1. If light is not reflected back, data is read as a 0. Lasers are used to read and write information on a disk.

Question 2

What is magnetic storage?

Answer 2

This technology is used in hard disks and tapes. Data is stored on a magnetic medium, which can be a disc or a tape, by writing data using a write-head. Data can then be read by the read-head.

Question 3

What is solid state technology?

Answer 3

Solid state technology is used in storage media such as flash memory sticks. The technology is called solid state as it doesn’t have any moving parts, such as a read-head in magnetic storage. Solid state storage technology is increasingly used to replace both magnetic and optical storage, especially in mobile devices, where its low power consumption and high speed access is advantageous.