Homework Assignment 3

5 points, Due Thursday, October 25

The following should be turned in.

1. (1 point) For each of the following characteristics, give an example of a storage technology that has that characteristic.
   • volatile
   • non-volatile
   • portable
2. (1 point) What is static RAM used for in modern computer systems? What is dynamic RAM used for?
3. (1 point) A magnetic disk disk rotates at 15000 rpm. What is its average rotational latency?
4. (1 point) What is a system bus? What kinds of signals does it carry?
5. (1 point) What are three types of interrupts? What are they used for?

Give the following some thought but you need not turn them in.

1. What are read-only memory and flash memory used for in primary data storage?
2. What are the two major factors that determine access time in disk media?
3. Can a storage technology that has slow access time have a high data transfer rate? Explain your answer.
4. Magnetic disks and optical disks both have data laid out in tracks on the disk. How do the tracks differ?
5. What kind of mechanism is used to deal with multiple interrupts?