Storage characteristics and trends

Questions

1. What does 'random access' mean?
Random access means that any storage location can be directly read or written. It is also called 'direct' access.

2. What does 'sequential access' mean?
Sequential access means that the storage locations have to be read or written in their correct order, starting with the first location.

3. What does 'volatile' mean?
Volatile refers to storage devices that will lose all thier data if the power is switched off.

4. Why is RAM the only volatile storage device?
RAM is the only storage device that can described as volatile as it needs a contant power supply to keep its data.

5. Why are sequential access devices better suited for storing backup data?
They work at a slow speed. Although access times may be poor, the rate of continuously writing or reading data can actually be very fast.