Storage Technology - Scientific Data Management - page 3

Chapter 1

Storage Technology

Jason Hick and John Shalf
National Energy Research Supercomputing Center, Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory, Berkeley, California

Contents

1.1 Introduction ............................................................. 4

1.2 Fundamentals of Magnetic Storage ..................................... 5

1.2.1 Storage Medium ................................................. 7

1.2.2 Superparamagnetism ............................................. 7

1.2.3 Magnetoresistive Reading ........................................ 8

1.2.4 Giant Magnetoresistance (GMR) ................................ 8

1.2.5 Perpendicular Recording ......................................... 8

1.2.6 Future Trends .................................................... 9

1.3 Disk Storage ........................................................... 11

1.3.1 Fundamentals .................................................. 12

1.3.2 Performance Characteristics ................................... 13

1.3.3 Enterprise and Commodity Disk Technology ................. 15

1.3.4 Future Trends .................................................. 16

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1.4 Tape Storage 16

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1.4.1 Fundamentals 17

1.4.2 Enterprise-Class Tape Technology ............................. 18

1.4.3 Commodity Tape Technology ................................. 19

1.4.4 Future Trends .................................................. 20

1.5 Optical Storage ........................................................ 20

1.5.1 CDs ............................................................ 20

1.5.2 DVDs ........................................................... 21

1.5.3 Blu-Ray and HD-DVD ......................................... 21

1.5.4 Future Trends .................................................. 21

1.6 Composite Devices .................................................... 22

1.6.1 RAID ........................................................... 22

1.6.2 Virtual Tape Libraries (VTLs) ................................ 24

1.6.3 Redundant Arrays of Independent Tape (RAIT) ............. 24

1.6.4 Data Integrity .................................................. 25

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