C1 Magnetic MediaMemory stored on external magnetic media include magnetic tape, a hard disk, and afloppy

disk. Magnetic tape is a form of external computer memory used primarily forbackup storage. Like the surface on
a magnetic disk, the surface of tape is coated with amaterial that can be magnetized. As the tape passes over an
electromagnet, individual bitsare magnetically encoded. Computer systems using magnetic tape storage
devicesemploy machinery similar to that used with analog tape: open-reel tapes, cassette tapes,and helical-scan
tapes (similar to video tape).Another form of magnetic memory uses a spinning disk coated with magnetic
material.As the disk spins, a sensitive electromagnetic sensor, called a read-write head, scansacross the surface of
the disk, reading and writing magnetic spots in concentric circlescalled tracks.Magnetic disks are classified as
either hard or floppy, depending on the flexibility of thematerial from which they are made. A floppy disk is made
of flexible plastic with smallpieces of a magnetic material imbedded in its surface. The read-write head touches
thesurface of the disk as it scans the floppy. A hard disk is made of a rigid metal, with theread-write head flying just
above its surface on a cushion of air to prevent wear.C2 Optical MediaOptical external memory uses a laser to
scan a spinning reflective disk in which thepresence or absence of nonreflective pits in the disk indicates 1s or 0s.
This is the sametechnology employed in the audio CD. Because its contents are permanently stored on itwhen it is
manufactured, it is known as compact disc-read only memory (CD-ROM). Avariation on the CD, called compact
disc-recordable (CD-R), uses a dye that turns dark when a stronger laser beam strikes it, and can thus have
information written permanentlyon it by a computer.C3 Magneto-Optical MediaMagneto-optical (MO) devices
write data to a disk with the help of a laser beam and amagnetic write-head. To write data to the disk, the laser
focuses on a spot on the surfaceof the disk heating it up slightly. This allows the magnetic write-head to change
thephysical orientation of small grains of magnetic material (actually tiny crystals) on thesurface of the disk. These
tiny crystals reflect light differently depending on theirorientation. By aligning the crystals in one direction a 0 can
be stored, while aligning thecrystals in the opposite direction stores a 1. Another, separate, low-power laser is used
toread data from the disk in a way similar to a standard CD-ROM. The advantage of MOdisks over CD-ROMs is
that they can be read and written to. They are, however, moreexpensive than CD-ROMs and are used mostly in
industrial applications. MO devices arenot popular consumer products.D Cache Memory
CPU speeds continue to increase much more rapidly than memory access times decrease.The result is a growing
gap in performance between the CPU and its main RAM memory.To compensate for the growing difference in
speeds, engineers add layers of cachememory between the CPU and the main memory. A cache consists of a
small, high-speedmemory system that holds recently used values. When the CPU makes a request to fetchor store
a memory value, the CPU sends the request to the cache. If the item is alreadypresent in the cache, the cache can
honor the request quickly because the cache operatesat higher speed than main memory. For example, if the CPU
needs to add two numbers,retrieving the values from the cache can take less than one-tenth as long as retrieving
thevalues from main memory. However, because the cache is smaller than main memory,not all values can fit in
the cache at one time. Therefore, if the requested item is not in thecache, the cache must fetch the item from main
memory.Cache cannot replace conventional RAM because cache is much more expensive andconsumes more
power. However, research has shown that even a small cache that canstore only 1 percent of the data stored in
main memory still provides a significantspeedup for memory access. Therefore, most computers include a small,
external memorycache attached to their RAM. More important, multiple caches can be arranged in ahierarchy to
lower memory access times even further. In addition, most CPUs now have acache on the CPU chip itself. The
on-chip internal cache is smaller than the externalcache, which is smaller than RAM. The advantage of the on-chip
cache is that once a dataitem has been fetched from the external cache, the CPU can use the item without havingto
wait for an external cache access.III DEVELOPMENTS AND LIMITATIONSSince the inception of computer
memory, the capacity of both internal and externalmemory devices has grown steadily at a rate that leads to a

quadrupling in size everythree years. Computer industry analysts expect this rapid rate of growth to
continueunimpeded. Computer engineers consider it possible to make multigigabyte memorychips and disks
capable of storing a terabyte (one trillion bytes) of memory.Some computer engineers are concerned that the
silicon-based memory chips areapproaching a limit in the amount of data they can hold. However, it is expected
thattransistors can be made at least four times smaller before inherent limits of physics makefurther reductions
difficult. Engineers also expect that the external dimensions of memorychips will increase by a factor of four,
meaning that larger amounts of memory will fit ona single chip. Current memory chips use only a single layer of
circuitry, but researchersare working on ways to stack multiple layers onto one chip. Once all of these
approachesare exhausted, RAM memory may reach a limit. Researchers, however, are also exploringmore exotic
technologies with the potential to provide even more capacity, including theuse of biotechnology to produce
memories out of living cells. The memory in a computeris composed of many memory chips. While current
memory chips contain megabytes of RAM, future chips will likely have gigabytes of RAM on a single chip. To
add to RAM,computer users can purchase memory cards that each contain many memory chips. In
addition, future computers will likely have advanced data transfer capabilities andadditional caches that enable the
CPU to access memory faster.IV HISTORYEarly electronic computers in the late 1940s and early 1950s used
cathode ray tubes(CRT), similar to a computer display screen, to store data. The coating on a CRT remainslit for a
short time after an electron beam strikes it. Thus, a pattern of dots could bewritten on the CRT, representing 1s and
0s, and then be read back for a short time beforefading. Like DRAM, CRT storage had to be periodically refreshed
to retain its contents.A typical CRT held 128 bytes, and the entire memory of such a computer was usually
4kilobytes.International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) developed magnetic core memory inthe early
1950s. Magnetic core (often just called core) memory consisted of tiny rings of magnetic material woven into
meshes of thin wires. When the computer sent a currentthrough a pair of wires, the ring at their intersection
became magnetized either clockwiseor counterclockwise (corresponding to a 0 or a 1), depending on the direction
of thecurrent. Computer manufacturers first used core memory in production computers in the1960s, at about the
same time that they began to replace vacuum tubes with transistors.Magnetic core memory was used through
most of the 1960s and into the 1970s.The next step in the development of computer memory came with the
introduction of integrated circuits, which enabled multiple transistors to be placed on one chip. Computerscientists
developed the first such memory when they constructed an experimentalsupercomputer called Illiac-IV in the late
1960s. Integrated circuit memory quicklydisplaced core and has been the dominant technology for internal
memory ever since