计算机英语第7章课文翻译,计算机专业英语第八章课文翻译

CHAPTER 8 SECONDARY STORAGE

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Introduction

Secondary storage devices are used to save, to back up, and even to transport files consisting of data or programs from one location or computer to another. Not long ago, almost all files contained only numbers and letters. The demands for saving these files were easily met with low-capacity floppy disk drives and hard-disk drives.

Data storage has expanded from text and numeric files to include digital music files, photographic files, video files, and much more. These new types of files require secondary storage devices that have much greater capacity.

Secondary storage devices have always been an indispensable element in any computer system. They have similarities to output and input devices. Like output devices, secondary storage devices receive information from the system unit in the form of the machine language of 0s and Is. Rather than translating the information, however, secondary storage devices save the information in machine language for later use. Like input devices, secondary storage devices send information to the system unit for processing. However, the information, since it is already in machine form, does not need to be translated. It is sent directly to memory (RAM), where it can be accessed and processed by the CPU.

Competent end users need to be aware of the different types of secondary storage. They need to know the capabilities, limitations, and uses of floppy disks, hard disks, optical discs, and other types of secondary storage. Additionally, they need to be aware of specialty storage devices for portable computers and to be knowledgeable about how large organizations manage their extensive data resources.

辅助存储设备被用来保存，备份，甚至把数据或程序从一个位置或计算机传送到另一个地方。前不久，几乎所有的文件只包含数字和字母。保存这些文件的要求很容易满足，只需要低容量的软盘驱动器和硬盘驱动器。

数据存储已经从文字和数字文件不断扩大，包括数字音乐文件，照相文件，视频文件，以及更多。这些新类型的文件需要有更大容量的辅助存储设备。

辅助存储设备一直是在任何计算机系统中不可缺少的元素。他们在输出和输入设备有相似之处。像输出设备一样，辅助存储设备从系统单元接收的信息是 0 和 1 的机器语言的形式。然而，辅助存储设备上用机器语言保存信息是为了供以后使用，而不是转换信息。像输入设备一样，辅助存储设备将信息发送到系