Component 1

Primary and Secondary Storage

Starter Pre-reading recap

 What is Primary Storage?  Which memory is fastest?

 What is stored in Primary Storage?  Name 3 different secondary storage devices
 What is Secondary Storage?  Which has the largest capacity?
 Explain what is different about Secondary  What is cloud storage?
Storage?
 What are the advantages of cloud storage?
 What is RAM?
 What are the disadvantages of cloud storage?
 What is ROM?
 Explain the difference between RAM and ROM?
 What is stored in ROM?
 What is Flash Memory?
 What is RAM Cache Memory?
 Describe the difference between Volatile and
Non-Volatile memory?
Learning Intentions and Outcomes

 Explain the functional characteristics of Random Access Memory (RAM), Read Only
Memory (ROM), flash memory and cache memory.
 Describe the characteristics of contemporary secondary storage technologies including
magnetic, optical and solid state.
 Explain the functional characteristics of contemporary secondary storage devices in terms
of suitability, durability, portability and speed.
What is memory?

 Memory in a computer system refers to

the components that store (or remember)
things. There are different types of
memory with different proposes.
 There are different types of memory can
be compared by three things
 Speed
 Price
 Volatility
Volatility

 There are two types of memory

 Volatile – It need electricity to continue
storing data
 Non-volatile – It does not need electricity to
store data
 When you are in the middle of a piece of
work at school and a “mate” turns off you
computer you will notice that you lose all of
your work. This is because all of your work is
stored in main memory/RAM. If you had
pressed save it would have been stored on
the Hard drive.
 Cache & RAM are volatile
 HDD and memory sticks are non-volatile
Primary Storage

 Primary Storage is used for the temporary

storage of currently running programs
and data.
 Primary Storage is much faster than
Secondary Storage

 The most common types are:

 RAM
 Cache
Cache

 Cache is the memory used by the CPU.

This is where the CPU places data
performs calculations.
 It is very fast
 It is very expensive
RAM

 Ram is the type of memory used in the

computers main memory. It stands for
Random Access Memory.
 It is used to store all of the instructions and
data ready to be used by the CPU (in its
cache).
Secondary Storage

Secondary storage is also known as backing

storage.
 Data is written from memory to secondary
storage when data is no longer being
actively used, for retrieval at a later time.
 The time a computer takes to access
data stored on secondary storage is
longer than the time taken accessing
data from memory
ROM

 Every computer or smart phone has

software called the bootstrap loader. This
is a small program that loads the
operating system.
 Once the operating system is loaded
then it takes care of the rest.
 Typically the bootstrap loader is Read
Only. It is hard coded to the device. You
can install different operating systems but
you must use the bootstrap
Other Secondary Storage Devices

 Magnetic Disk Hard Drives

 Solid State Drives
 Flash Memory
 Magnetic Tape
Why bother with both?

So why doesn’t the processor get the

instructions strait from the Hard Disk?
 It is all about keeping the CPU busy. The
Hard disk is too slow to keep up.
 Cache is too expensive to use to store all
programs and files.