Maxtor VL 17 manual Glossary, Access Time

GLOSSARY

Glossary

A

ACCESS

Toobtaindatafrom,orplacedatainto,RAM,aregister,ordatastoragedevice.

ACCESS TIME

Theintervalbetweentheissuingofanaccesscommandandtheinstantthatthetarget datamaybereadorwritten.Accesstimeincludesseektime,latencyandcontroller overheadtime.

ADDRESS

Anumber,generallybinary,distinguishingaspecificmemberofanorderedsetof locations.Indiskengineering,theaddressmayconsistofdrives(unitaddress),radial positions(cylinderaddress),orcircumferentialposition(sectoraddress).

ALLOCATION

Aprocessofassigningdesignatedareasofthedisktoparticularfiles.

ALTERNATE TRACK

Asparetrackusedintheeventthatanormaltrackbecomesdamagedorisunusable.

ANALOG

Asignalorsystemthatdoesnotusedigitalstatestoconveyinformation.Asignalmay haveanynumberofsignificantstates(values),contrastedtodigitalsignalswhichcan onlyhavetwostates.

ANSI

AmericanNationalStandardsInstitute.

APPLICATION PROGRAM

Asequenceofprogrammedinstructionsthattellthecomputerhowtoperformsome end-usertask,suchasaccountingorwordprocessing.

AREAL DENSITY

Bitdensity(bitsperinch)multipliedbytrackdensity(tracksperinch)orbitspersquare inch.

ASYMMETRY

Adistortionofthereadbacksignalwhichisshownindifferentintervalsbetweenthe positiveandnegativevoltagepeaks.

AUXILIARY MEMORY

Memoryotherthanmainmemory;generallyamass-storagesubsystemcontainingdisk drivesandbackuptapedrives,controller(s)andbuffermemory(alsocalledperipheral memory).

AVERAGE ACCESS TIME

Theaveragetimetomakeallpossiblelengthaccesses(seeks).

AVERAGE SEEK TIME

Theaveragetimetomakeallpossiblelengthseeks.Atypicalmeasureofperformance.

B

BAD BLOCK

Ablockthatcannotstoredatabecauseofamediaflaw.

BIT

Anabbreviationforbinarydigit,ofwhichtherearetwo(0and1).Abitisthebasic dataunitofmostdigitalcomputers.Abitisusuallypartofadatabyteorword,butbits maybeusedsinglytocontrolorreadlogic“on-off”functions.Thefundamentalunit information,oftenusedlooselytorefertoacircuitormagnetizationstateataparticular instantintime.

BIOS

AcronymforBasicInput/OutputSystem.ThefirmwareareaofaCPUthatcontrols operationsthroughthesystembusandtotheattachedcardsandperipheraldevices.

BPI

Acronymforbitsperinch.Seebitdensity.

BLOCK

Agroupofbyteshandled,stored,andaccessedasalogicaldataunit,suchasan individualfilerecord.

BUFFER

Atemporarydatastorageareathatcompensatesforadifferenceindatatransferrates and/ordataprocessingratesbetweensenderandreceiver.

BUS

Acollectionoffunctionallyparallelconductorsthatformsaninterconnectionbetween functionalblocksinadigitaldevice.Alengthofparallelconductorsthatformsamajor interconnectionroutebetweenthecomputersystemCPU(centralprocessingunit)and itsperipheralsubsystems. Dependingonitsdesign,abusmaycarrydata,addresses, power,andmore.

BYTE

Anorderedcollectionofbitstreatedasaunit.Mostoften,abyteisunderstoodto consistofeightbits.Onebyteisnecessarytodefineanalphanumericcharacter.

C

CACHE

Randomaccessmemory(RAM)usedasabufferbetweentheCPUandthediskdrive.

CAPACITY

Theamountofdata,usuallyexpressedinbytes,whichcanbestoredinagivendevice orportionofsame.

CENTRAL PROCESSING UNIT (CPU) Theheartofthecomputersystemthatexecutesprogrammedinstructions.Itincludes thearithmeticlogicunit(ALU)forperformingallmathandlogicoperations,acontrol sectionforinterpretingandexecutinginstructions,internalmemoryfortemporary storageofprogramvariablesandotherfunctions.

CHANNEL

Acollectionofelectroniccircuitsusedintheprocessofwritingandreading informationtoandfrommagneticmedia.

CHARACTER

Anorderedcollectionofbitsrepresentingoneofasetofpredefinedsymbols.Oftenthe termisusedinterchangeablywithbyte,butthisisinexact.

CLOSED LOOP

Acontroltechniquethatenablesthepositioningsystemtocorrectoff-trackerrorsin realtime.Theactualheadpositionismonitoredandcomparedtotheidealtrack positiontodetermineanypositionerrorthatmightbeoccurring.Thisinformationis thenusedtoproduceacorrectionsignal(feedback)thatgoestothepositionertocorrect theerror.(Seealsotrackfollowingservo).

CLOSED LOOP SERVO

Aservocontroltechniquethatusespositionfeedbacktocorrectoff-trackerrors.See TrackFollowingServo.

CLUSTER

ThesmallestallocatableunitofdiskstorageallowedbyMS-DOS;eachFATentry representsonecluster.

CONTROLLER

Anelectronicdeviceforconnectingoneormoremassstorageperipherals(rigiddisk drives,tapedrives,andopticaldiskdrives)totheinput/outputcircuitsofahost computer.Controllersvaryincomplexity,withmoresophisticatedunitsabletobuffer andschedulecommands,correctdataerrors,andbypassmediadefectswithouthost intervention.

CONTROLLER

AminiatureCPUdedicatedtocontrollingaperipheraldevice,suchasadiskdrive, tapedrive,videodisplayterminal,orprinter.Thecontrollerexecutescommandsfrom thecentralprocessingunitandreissuescommandstotheperipheraldevice.

CORRECTABLE ERROR

AnerrorthatcanbeovercomebytheuseofErrorDetectionandCorrection.

GL – 1