Multimedia Devices And Mass Storage

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array

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a group of hard drives implementing RAID.

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basic disk

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A way to partition a hard drive, used by DOS and all versions of Windows, that stores information about the drive in a partition table at the beginning of the drive. Compare to dynamic disk.

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CDFS (Compact Disc File System)

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The 32-bit file system for CD discs and some CD-R and CD-RW discs that replaced the older 16-bit mscdex file system used by DOS. See also Universal Disk Format (UDF).

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CD-R (CD-recordable)

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A CD drive that can record or write data to a CD. The drive may or may not be multi-session, but the data cannot be erased once it is written.

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CD-RW (CD-rewritable)

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A CD drive that can record or write data to a CD. The data can be erased and overwritten. The drive may or may not be multisession.

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constant angular velocity (CAV)

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A technology used by hard drives and newer CD-ROM drives whereby the disk rotates at a constant speed.

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constant linear velocity (CLV)

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A CD-ROM format in which the spacing of data is consistent on the CD, but the speed of the disc varies depending on whether the data being read is near the center or the edge of the disc.

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data cartridge

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A type of tape medium typically used for backups. Full-sized data cartridges are 4 x 6 x 2 inches in size. A mini-cartridge is only 3 x 2 x 2 inches in size.

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drop height

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The height from which a manufacturer states that its device, such as a hard drive, can be dropped without making the device unusable.

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DVD (digital video disc or digital versatile disc)

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A faster, larger CD format that can read older CDs, store over 8 GB of data, and hold full-length motion picture videos.

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dynamic disk

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A way to partition one or more hard drives, introduced with Windows 2000, in which information about the drive is stored in a database at the end of the drive. Compare to basic disk

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dynamic volume

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A volume type used with dynamic disks for which you can change the size of the volume after you have created it.

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fault tolerance

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The degree to which a system can tolerate failures. Adding redundant components, such as disk mirroring or disk duplexing, is a way to build in fault tolerance.

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half-life

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The time it takes for a medium storing data to weaken to half of its strength. Magnetic media, including traditional hard drives and floppy disks, have a half-life of five to seven years.

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hertz (Hz)

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Unit of measurement for frequency, calculated in terms of vibrations, or cycles per second. For example, for 16-bit stereo sound, a frequency of 44,000 Hz is used. See also megahertz.

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JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group)

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A graphical compression scheme that allows the user to control the amount of data that is averaged and sacrificed as file size is reduced. It is a common Internet file format. Most JPEG files have a .jpg extension.

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lands

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Microscopic flat areas on the surface of a CD or DVD that separate pits. Lands and pits are used to represent data on the disk.

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minicartridge

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A tape drive cartridge that is only 3 x2 x inches. It is small enough to allow two drives to fit into a standard 5 -inch drive bay of a PC case.

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mirrored volume

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Also called RAID 1 or drive imaging.

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MMX (Multimedia Extensions)

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Multimedia instructions built into Intel processors to add functionality such as better processing of multimedia, SIMD support, and increased cache.

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Moving Pictures Experts Group (MPEG)

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A processing-intensive standard for data compression for motion pictures that tracks movement from one frame to the next and only stores the data that has changed.

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MP3

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A method to compress audio files that uses MPEG level 1. It can reduce sound files as low as a 1: 24 ratio without losing much sound quality.

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multisession

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A feature that allows data to be read from or written to a CD during more than one session. This is important if the disk was only partially filled during the first write.

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pits

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Recessed areas on the surface of a CD or DVD, separating lands, or flat areas. Lands and pits are used to represent data on a disc.

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RAID (redundant array of inexpensive disks or redundant array of independent disks)

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Several methods of configuring multiple hard drives to store data to increase logical volume size and improve performance, or to ensure that if one hard drive fails, the data is still available from another hard drive.

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RAID 0

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Can use space from two or more physical disks and increases the disk space available for a single volume.

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RAID 1

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Duplicates data on another drive and is used for fault tolerance.

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RAID-5 volume

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Is striped across three or more drives and uses parity checking, so that if one drive fails, the other drives can re-create the data stored on the failed drive.

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sampling rate

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The rate of samples taken of an analog signal over a period of time, usually expressed as samples per second, or hertz.

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sequential access

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A method of data access used by tape drives, whereby data is written or read sequentially from the beginning to the end of the tape or until the desired data is found.

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SIMD (single instruction, multiple data)

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A process that allows the CPU to execute a single instruction simultaneously on multiple pieces of data, rather than by repetitive looping.

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simple volume

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A type of dynamic volume used on a single hard drive that corresponds to a primary partition on a basic disk.

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solid state device (SSD)

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A storage device that uses memory chips to store data instead of spinning disks (such as those used by hard drives and CD drives). Examples of solid state devices are jump drives (also called key drives or thumb drives), flash memory cards, and solid state disks used as hard drives in notebook computers designed for the most rugged uses. Also called solid state disk (SSD).

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solid state disk (SSD)

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Another term for solid state device.

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spanned volume

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A type of dynamic volume used on two or more hard drives that fills up the space allotted on one physical disk before moving to the next.

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SSE (Streaming SIMD Extension)

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A technology used by the Intel Pentium III and later CPUs and designed to improve performance of multimedia software.

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streaming audio

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Downloading audio data from the Internet in a continuous stream of data without first downloading an entire audio file.

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striped volume

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A type of dynamic volume used for two or more hard drives that writes to the disks evenly rather than filling up allotted space on one and then moving on to the next. Compare to spanned volume.

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Surround Sound

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A sound compression standard that supports six separate sound channels using six speakers known as Front Left and Right, Front Center, Rear Left and Right, and Subwoofer. Surround Sound 7.1 supports two additional rear or side speakers. Also known Dolby AC-3, Dolby Digital Surround, or Dolby Surround Sound.

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TIFF (Tagged Image File Format)

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A bitmapped file format used to hold photographs, graphics, and screen captures. TIFF files can be rather large, and have a .tif file extension.

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TV tuner card

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Can turn your computer into a television.

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UDF (Universal Disk Format) file system

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A file system for optical media used by all DVD discs and some CD-R and CD-RW discs.

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video capture card

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Lets you capture this video input and save it to a file on your hard drive.