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- Three types of information are stored on secondary memory:
- Operating system
(machine specific) can be thought of as
basic housekeeping system.
- Unix; many different types of this operating system.
- Kernel (conceptual core of the operating system which is
machine specific).
- Shell (neutral) therefore no machine specific
characteristics.
- Application program
; (Assist in completing a specific
task). For example, Excel, Word, PhotoShop, AutoCAD, Form Z, etc.
- Data
: any digital picture, text file, mp3, 3d model,
spreadsheet, etc.
- All of the above examples are stored (represented) with the
use of binary digits. The computer industry calls these binary digits or bits.
- To reiterate previous lecture, the logic behind all forms of
data storage comes down to strategies of representation.
- Note: 8 bits = 1 byte
- 01101110 therefore 8 1s and or 0s in any
configuration = 1 byte.
- Everything in binary is represented by a base two system.
(2Ù x).
- One byte has 256 possible combinations. (2Ù 8 =
256).
- So each character and symbol of text is represented by one
byte.
- (For more information see ASCII in the class glossary).
- "American standard code for information
interchange.
- Common to all text.
- Documents ending in .txt are ASCII.
- Bits vs. bytes:
- Kilobyte » 1000 bytes = 1024 bytes
..2Ù 10
- Megabyte » 1,000,000 bytes =1,048,567
..2Ù 20
- Gigabyte » 1,000,000,000 bytes.
- Terabytes
- Files
- Opening a file- copying from secondary memory to primary
memory.
- Reading a file- copying from secondary memory to primary
memory.
- Loading a file- copying from secondary memory to primary
memory.
- Closing a file- copying from primary memory to secondary
memory.
- Writing a file- copying from primary memory to secondary
memory.
- Saving a file- copying from primary memory to secondary
memory.
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