Secondary Storage Devices
- Secondary storage devices are also called auxiliary storage.
- It is a memory that is stored external to the computer.
- It is mainly used for permanent and long-term storage of programs and data.
- Secondary storage includes magnetic tape, magnetic disk and optical disk tape punched
cards, and punched paper.
Magnetic Tape
- Today they are used primarily for data backup purposes.
- It consists of thin ribbon plastic called tape.
- One side of the tape is coated with iron-oxide.
- It stores the data by magnetizing and
demagnetizing the tape.
Magnetic Disk
• Magnetic disk is the most widely used
storage medium on all computers.
Optical Disk
• Optical disk uses laser light to read or write data.
• They use high powered laser light to burn on
the surface of the disk to store data.
• The burned-out part is called the pit, and the non-burnt part is called land.
• Compact Disc (CD) and Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) are the two most common types of
optical disks.
I) Compact Disc (CD)
- It can store 700 MB of information.
- Data is stored only on one side of the disc.
- There are three basic types of CDs: Compact Disc Read Only Memory (CD-ROM),
Compact Disc Recordable (CD-R) and Compact Disc Read-Write (CD-RW).
*CD-ROM is read only type of CD, i.e. we cannot write data on such CDs or you cannot erase
data from it.
* Compact Disc Recordable (CD-R): It is also called Write Once and Read Many (WORM).
- These kinds of CDs can be written on once. But then after, you cannot rewrite on it
or erase data from it.
* Compact Disc Read-Write (CD-RW)
- It is also called erasable optical disc.
- You can write data as many times as you want on such CDs.
- You can also erase or delete data from such CDs.
II) Digital Versatile Disc (DVD)
- It is similar to CD except that it can store large amounts of data and it has narrow tracks
than CD.
- It can store 4.7-17GB of information.
Output Devices
- The output devices are used to get data out of a computer.
Example
Monitor, printer, plotter, projector, speakers, headphones and braille reader .
Monitor
- The monitor output device is used for displaying output to the user.
• The following are types of monitor: Cathode Ray Tube (CRT), Light Emitting Diode (LED),
Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) and Gas Plasma Monitor (GPM).
1. Cathode Ray Tube Monitor (CRT)
- It is a technology used in traditional computer
monitors and televisions.
2. Liquid Crystal Display (LCD)
- Liquid crystal display is the most commonly
used device in digital watches, clocks, calculators,
smartphones, desktop computers,
laptops, and television.
3. Light Emitting Diode (LED)
- LED stands for Light Emitting Diode.
- LED monitor, sometimes called LED-backlit monitors,
have great color and image quality, but it does
not have a good response time.
4. Gas Plasma Monitor
- Gas plasma monitor (GPM) uses neon gas
instead of liquid crystal.
Printer
- The printer is an output device that enables
us to produce a hard copy of data or information.
Types of printers
1. Impact printers, e.g. Dot-matrix Printer and Daisy-wheel Printer.
2. Non-impact printer, e.g. Ink Jet Printers, Laser Printer and Thermal printers.
Plotter
- Plotter is used to produce high-quality drawings
such as bar charts, maps and banners.
- It produces high quality multi-color documents on
larger size papers which most printers cannot handle.
