R
RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY (RAM)
Memorydesignedsothatanystoragelocationcanbeaccessedrandomly,directlyand individually.Thisiscontrastedtosequentialaccessdevicessuchastapedrives.
READ
Toaccessastoragelocationandobtainpreviouslyrecordeddata.Tosensethepresence offluxreversalsonmagneticmedia.Usuallyimplementedsuchthatadynamicflux amplitudewillcauseaproportionalelectricaloutputfromthetransducer.
READ GATE SIGNAL
Adigitalinputsignalwhichcausesthedrivecircuitrytorecoverdata.
READ ONLY MEMORY (ROM)
Aformofmemorywhichcannotbechangedinformaloperationalmodes.Many differenttypesareavailable.RAMisusedforpermanentinformationstorage. ComputercontrolprogramsareoftenstoredinROMapplications.
READ/WRITE HEAD
Therecordingelementwhichwritesdatatothemagneticmediaandreadsrecorded datafromthemedia.
Theactionofmovingtheheadofadiskdrivetocylinderzero.
RECOVERABLE ERROR
Areaderror,transientorotherwise,fallingwithinthecapabilityofanECC mechanismtocorrect,orabletoovercomebyrereadingthedatainquestion.
ROTATIONAL LATENCY
Theamountofdelayinobtaininginformationfromadiskdriveattributabletothe rotationofthedisk.
RUN-LENGTH LIMITED
Anencodingprocessthatrepositionsdatabitsandlimitsthelengthofzerobitsinorder tocompressinformationbeingstoredondisks.
RUN-LENGTH LIMITED ENCODING
Arecordingcode.Sometimesmeanttodenote“2.7RLL”whichcansignify1.5times thebitsasMFM,giventhesamenumberoffluxreversalsinagivenlinealdistance.
S
SECTOR
Alogicalsegmentofinformationonaparticulartrack.Thesmallestaddressableunitof storageonadisk.Tracksaremadeofsectors.
SECTOR PULSE SIGNAL
Adigitalsignalpulsepresentinhardsectoreddriveswhichindicatesthebeginningofa sector.Embeddedservopatternorotherprerecordedinformationmaybepresenton thediskwhensectorisactive.
SEEK
Arandomaccessoperationbythediskdrive.Theactofmovingasetofread/write headssothatoneofthemisoverthedesiredcylinder.Theactuatororpositionermoves theheadstothecylindercontainingthedesiredtrackandsector.
SEEK COMPLETE SIGNAL
Adigitalsignallevelwhichindicatesthatthepositionerisnotmovingandislocated overacylinderoroffsetposition.
SEEK TIME
Theamountoftimebetweenwhenasteppulseorseekcommandisissueduntilthe headsettlesontothedesiredcylinder.Sometimesismeasuredwithoutsettlingtimes.
SEQUENTIAL ACCESS
Thewritingorreadingofdatainasequentialordersuchasreadingdatablocksstored oneaftertheotheronmagnetictape.Thisiscontrastedtorandomaccessof information.
SERVO BURST
Amomentaryservopatternusedinembeddedservocontrolsystemsusuallypositioned betweensectorsorattheendofatrack.
SERVO CONTROL
Atechniquebywhichthespeedorpositionofamovingdeviceisforcedinto conformitywithadesiredorstandardspeedorposition.
GLOSSARY
SERVO HEAD
Amagneticheaddesignedspecificallyforaccuratelyreadingservodata.
SERVO PATTERN
Areadbacksignalthatindicatesthepositionofaheadrelativetoatrack.
SERVO SURFACE
SERVO SYSTEM
Anautomaticsystemformaintainingtheread/writeheadontrack;canbeeither“open
SERVO TRACK
Atrackonaservosurface.Theprerecordedreferencetrackonthededicatedservo surfaceofadiskdrive.Alldatatrackpositionsarecomparedtotheircorresponding servotrack todetermine“offtrack”/”ontrack”position.
SETTLING TIME
Thetimeittakesaheadtostopvibrating,withinspecifiedlimits,afteritreachesthe desiredcylinder.
SILICON Semiconductormaterialgenerallyusedtomanufacturemicroprocessorsandother integratedcircuitchips.
SMALL COMPUTER SYSTEM INTERFACE (SCSI)
Anintelligentinterfacethatincorporatescontrollerfunctionsdirectlyintothedrive.
S.M.A.R.T. CAPABILITY
SOFT ERROR
Adataerrorwhichcanbeovercomebyrereadingthedataorrepositioningthehead.
SOFT SECTORED
Atechniquewherethecontrollerdeterminesthebeginningofasectorbythereading offormatinformationfromthedisk.Thisiscontrastedtohardsectoringwherea digitalsignalindicatesthebeginningofasectoronatrack.
SOFTWARE
Applicationsprograms,operatingsystems,andotherprograms(asopposedto hardware).
SPINDLE
Therotatinghubstructuretowhichthedisksareattached.
SPINDLE MOTOR
Themotorthatrotatesthespindleandthereforethedisks.
SPUTTERED MEDIA
Magneticdiskortapethathasthemagneticlayerdepositedbysputteringmeans.
STEPPER MOTOR
Amotorthathasknowndetentpositionswheretherotorwillstopwiththeproper controlinsomecases.Thedigitallycontrolledmotormovestheheadpositionerfrom
STORAGE CAPACITY
Theamountofdatathatcanbestoredinamemorylocation,usuallyspecifiedin kilobytesformainmemoryandfloppydrivesandmegabytesformassstoragedevices.
STORAGE DENSITY
Usuallyreferstorecordingdensity(BPI,TPI,oracombinationofthetwo.)
STORAGE LOCATION
Amemorylocation,identifiedbyanaddresswhereinformationmaybereador written.
STROBE OFFSET SIGNAL
AgroupofdigitalinputsignallevelswhichcausethereadPLLand/ordatadecoderto shiftthedecodingwindowsbyfractionalamounts.Oftenearly/latearemodifiedwhen twosignalsareused.
GL – 5