理解transfer bandwidth per avaible byte&disk bandwidth & sequential access & random access

• Dirve or disk

  From [2], the hard drive is where a computing device stores data for the long term.

  From techterms, a drive is a computer component used to store data. It may be a static device or may use removable media.

  Why are computer drives called “drives”? a compelling reason is that early drives required a rotating device that would spin or “drive” the disk.

  Reynold B. Johnson developed the first real hard drive at IBM in 1956.

  IBM developed flppy disks in the late 1960s to easily load code into their mainframes;

  The first commercially avaiable read/write drive didn’t appear until 1972.

  A hard dirve can be a:

  • Hard disk drive (HDD)

    HDD use a spinning magnetic disk that holds information inscribed in very tiny tracks - a bit like a record player.

  • Solid state drive (SSD)

    There are no moving part in SSD, thest drives use semiconductors that store information by changing the electrical state of very tiny capacitors. They are without the risk of parts wearing out.

  当前理解，drive是一个计算机组件，而disk是实际存储着信息的物理部件。

  Hard dirve qualities:

  • speed: for the HDD
  • physical security: your device’s resistance to damage that could result in data loss

• Disk bandwidth

  Transfer rate(also called throughput) is the rate at which data flow between drive and the computer.

  From [1], Disk bandwidth is the total number of bytes transferred divided by the total time between the first request for service and the completion of the last transfer.

• Sequential access

  Sequential access is a term describing a group of elements (such as data in a memory array or a disk file or on magnetic tape data storage) being accessd in a predetermined, ordered sequence.

  Sequential access memory (SAM) is a class of data storage devices that read stored data in a sequence.

• Random access

  Random access (direct access) is the ability to access an arbitrary element of a sequence in equal time or any datum as any other.

  Random access memory (RAM) is a form of computer memory that can be read and changed in any order, typically used to store working data and machine code.

• References

1. Overview of Mass Storage Structure
2. What is a hard drive?
3. Why are there no A and B drives in a PC?
4. Hard disk drive performance characteristics