CourseHES 213

Week13 of 16

SemesterII

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This week’s topics

Storage devices

Magnetic, optical and solid-state storage
Choosing the right storage

What you will be able to do

3.2 Describe units of data storage (bit, byte, KB, MB, GB).
1.1 Describe the role of hardware and software components.

Activity

Choose storage for three different users and explain why.

Study materials

Further resources

Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective, 6.1.2: Disk Storage · PDF · Bryant & O'Hallaron, CS:APP 2e manuscript sample, 6.1.2 on magnetic disks, with a note on solid-state drives (a step up), pp. 539–545 · for registered students
Introduction to Computer Science, 5.5: Memory and Storage · PDF · OpenStax Introduction to Computer Science (2024), 5.5: magnetic, optical and solid-state storage compared, pp. 218–225 · for registered students

Materials marked “for registered students” open in the student portal, which is set up as soon as you receive final acceptance.

Week 12 Week 14

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Course plan

Week 1: What is a computer system?
Week 2: Hardware: the parts of a computer
Week 3: Software: system and application software
Week 4: The CPU and the fetch-execute cycle
Week 5: Memory: RAM, ROM and cache
Week 6: What an operating system does
Week 7: Comparing operating systems
Midterm: Midterm evaluation
Week 9: Bits and bytes: units of storage
Week 10: Storing text: ASCII and Unicode
Week 11: Storing images: pixels and colour depth
Week 12: Storing sound: sampling
Week 13: Storage devices
Week 14: Choosing a computer for a job
Week 15: Review and coursework completion
Final: Final assessment and submission

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