Data Storage Devices
Beginning of paper
Even before the first computer was conceptualized, data had already been
stored on hard copy medium and used with a machine. As early as 1801, the
punched card was used as a control device for mechanical looms. One and
one-half centuries later, IBM joined punched cards to computers, encoding
bina ....
Middle of paper
.... magnetic technology used for computer data storage is the same
technology used in the various forms of magnetic tape from audiocassette to
videocassette recorders. One of the first computer storage devices was the
magnetic tape drive. Magnetic tape is a sequential data storage medium. To
read data, a tape drive must wind through the spool of tape to the exact
location of the desired information. To write, the tape drive encodes data
sequentially on the tape. Because tape drives cannot rand ....
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