CPE 405

INTRODUCTION TO MICROPROCESSOR
TECHNOLOGY & MICROPROGRAMMING

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External Memory 2
-Optical Memory
- Magnetic Tapes
Interconnection Structures

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 In 1983, one of the most successful consumer products of all time was
introduced:
 the compact disk (CD) digital audio system.
 The CD is a non-erasable disk that can store more than 60 minutes of
audio information on one side.
 The huge commercial success of the CD enabled the development of
low-cost optical-disk storage technology that has revolutionized
computer data storage.
 A variety of optical-disk systems have been introduced (Table).
 Table
Optical
Disk
Products
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Compact Disk Read-Only Memory
(CD-ROM)
 Audio CD and the CD-ROM share a similar technology
 The main difference is that CD-ROM players are more rugged and
have error correction devices to ensure that data are properly transferred from
disk to computer

 Production: (Both types of disk are made the same way)

 The disk is formed from a resin such as polycarbonate
 Digitally recorded information (either music or computer data) is imprinted as a
series of microscopic pits on the surface of the polycarbonate
 This is done with a finely focused, high intensity laser to create a master disk
 The master is used, in turn, to make a die to stamp out copies onto
polycarbonate
 The pitted surface is then coated with a highly reflective surface, usually
aluminum or gold
 This shiny surface is protected against dust and scratches by a top
coat of clear acrylic
 Finally a label can be silkscreened onto the acrylic
 Information is retrieved from a CD or CD-ROM by a low-powered laser housed in
an optical-disk player, or drive unit.
 The laser shines through the clear polycarbonate
 while a motor spins the disk past it (Figure 6.12).
 The intensity of the reflected light of the laser changes as it encounters a pit.
 Specifically, if the laser beam falls on a pit, which has a somewhat rough surface, the light
scatters and a low intensity is reflected back to the source.
 The areas between pits are called lands. A land is a smooth surface, which reflects back at
higher intensity.
 The change between pits and lands is detected by a photo sensor and converted into a
digital signal.
 The sensor tests the surface at regular intervals.
 The beginning or end of a pit represents a 1; when no change in elevation occurs between
intervals, a 0 is recorded.
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CD Operation
 Recall that on a magnetic disk, information is recorded in concentric tracks.
--With the simplest CAV system, the number of bits per track is constant.
--An increase in density is achieved with MZR, although this technique increases
capacity, it is still not optimal.

 To achieve greater capacity, CDs and CD-ROMs do not organize information on concentric
tracks.
 Instead, the disk contains a single spiral track, beginning near the center and spiraling out to
the outer edge of the disk.
 Sectors near the outside of the disk are the same length as those near the inside.
 Thus, information is packed evenly across the disk in segments of the same size and
 these are scanned at the same rate by rotating the disk at a variable speed.
 The pits are then read by the laser at a constant linear velocity (CLV).
 The disk rotates more slowly for accesses near the outer edge than for those near the
center.
 Thus, the capacity of a track and the rotational delay both increase for positions nearer the
outer edge of the disk.
 The data capacity for a CD-ROM is about 680 MB.
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 CD-ROM is appropriate for the distribution of large CD-ROM
amounts of data to a large number of users

 Because the expense of the initial writing process it

is not appropriate for individualized applications
 The CD-ROM has two advantages:

 The optical disk together with the information stored

on it can be mass replicated inexpensively

 The optical disk is removable, allowing the disk itself

to be used for archival storage

 The CD-ROM disadvantages:

 It is read-only and cannot be updated

 It has an access time much longer than that of a

magnetic disk drive
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CD Recordable CD Rewritable
(CD-R) (CD-RW)
 Write-once read-many  Can be repeatedly written and
overwritten
 Accommodates applications in  Phase change disk uses a material that
which only one or a small has two significantly different
number of copies of a set of data reflectivities in two different phase states
is needed  Amorphous state

 Disk is prepared in such a way  Molecules exhibit a random

that it can be subsequently orientation that reflects light poorly
written once with a laser beam  Crystalline state
of modest-intensity  Has a smooth surface that reflects light
well
 Medium includes a dye layer
which is used to change  A beam of laser light can change the
reflectivity and is activated by a material from one phase to the other
high-intensity laser  Disadvantage is that the material
eventually and permanently loses its
 Provides a permanent record of desirable properties
large volumes of user data  Advantage is that it can be rewritten
 Digital Versatile Disk (DVD)
 High capacity digital versatile disk (DVD) = an acceptable replacement for the analog
VHS video tape.
 The DVD has replaced the videotapes and CD-ROM in personal computers and servers.
 The DVD takes video into the digital age.
 It delivers impressive picture quality, can be randomly accessed like audio CDs,
 Vast volumes of data can be crammed onto the disk, About 7x as much as a CD-ROM.
 DVD’s huge storage capacity and vivid quality, paved way to PC games and educational
software incorporates more video.
The DVD’s greater capacity is due to three differences from CDs (Figure 6.14):
1. Bits are packed more closely on a DVD.
2. The DVD employs a second layer of pits and lands on top of the first layer. Although a full
doubling is not achieved.
3. The DVD-ROM can be two sided, whereas data are recorded on only one side of a CD.
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Digital
Versatile Disk
(DVD)
High-Definition
Optical Disks
High-definition optical disks = HD videos, and significantly greater storage capacity
 The higher bit density is achieved by using a laser with
• a shorter wavelength, in the
• blue-violet range.

 Two competing disk formats and technologies : HD DVD and Blu-ray DVD.
 The HD DVD scheme can store 15 GB on a single layer on a single side.
 Blu-ray positions the data layer on the disk closer to the laser to enable
 a tighter focus and
 less distortion
 These implies smaller pits and tracks.

 Blu-ray can store 25 GB on a single layer.

 Three versions are available: read only (BD-ROM), recordable once (BD-R),
and re-recordable (BD-RE).
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Magnetic Tape
 Tape systems use the same reading and recording techniques as
disk systems

 Medium is flexible polyester tape coated with magnetizable

material

 Coating may consist of particles of pure metal in special binders

or vapor-plated metal films

 Data on the tape are structured as a number of parallel tracks

running lengthwise

 Serial recording
 Data are laid out as a sequence of bits along each track

 Data are read and written in contiguous blocks called physical

records

 Blocks on the tape are separated by gaps referred to as inter-

record gaps
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Magnetic
Tape
Features
The typical recording technique used in serial tapes is referred to as
serpentine recording
In this technique, when data are being recorded,
 the first set of bits is recorded along the whole length of the tape.
When the end of the tape is reached, the heads are repositioned to
record a new track, and
the tape is again recorded on its whole length, this time in the opposite
direction.
That process continues, back and forth, until the tape is full.

 To increase speed, the read-write head is capable of reading and writing a

number of adjacent tracks simultaneously (typically two to eight tracks).
 Data are still recorded serially along individual tracks, but blocks in
sequence are stored on adjacent tracks.
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Linear Tape-Open (LTO) Tape Drives:
Generations
Interconnection Structure
 At a top level, a computer consists of
 CPU (central processing unit),
 memory, and
 I/O components
 These components are interconnected in some fashion to achieve the basic function of the
computer, which is to execute programs.
 Thus, at a top level, we can characterize a computer system by describing
(1) the external behavior of each component, that is, the data and control signals that it
exchanges with other components and
(2) the interconnection structure and the controls required to manage the use of the
interconnection structure.

In effect, a computer is a network of basic modules. Thus, there must be paths for connecting
the modules.
 The collection of paths connecting the various modules is called the interconnection
structure.
 The design of this structure will depend on the exchanges that must be made among
modules.
 The following list defines the data to be exchanged.
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Computer
Modules
The interconnection structure must support the following types of transfers::

• Memory to processor: The processor reads an instruction or a unit of data

from memory.

• Processor to memory: The processor writes a unit of data to memory.

• I/O to processor: The processor reads data from an I/O device via an I/O
module.

• Processor to I/O: The processor sends data to the I/O device.

• I/O to or from memory: For these two cases, an I/O module is allowed to exchange
data directly with memory, without going through the processor, using direct memory access.
The interconnection structure must support the
following types of transfers:

Memory Processor I/O to or

I/O to Processor
to to from
processor to I/O
processor memory memory

An I/O
module is
allowed to
exchange
data
Processor Processor
directly
reads an Processor reads data Processor
with
instruction writes a from an I/O sends data
memory
or a unit of unit of data device via to the I/O
without
data from to memory an I/O device
going
memory module
through the
processor
using direct
memory
access
+ Summary External Memory 2
&
Interconnection structures

 Optical memory  Magnetic tape

 Compact disk
 Digital versatile disk
 High-definition optical disks

 Interconnection structure.