Marlon Sanchez
The Hardrive:
In 1956, IBM created the first hardrive. Its design was composed of disks and two magnetic heads. The purpose of this device was to hold large amounts of information.
The following is a detailed description of the hardrive:
Located in the infrastructure of computers
Composed of multiple metallic disks that hold information
Each of these disks have heads that read and write their information
Stores settings, programs, and operating system
In comparison to the RAM device which can only hold 128MB to 1GB the hardrive holds 1GB to 400GB. Thus, the hardrive holds much more data. Moreover, the RAM temporarily holds data. The hardrive on the other hand holds information for a much longer time. Contents on RAM disappear once system is shut down. After the computer is shut down the hardrive continues to store data.
In terms of composition, the RAM device is composed of chips. Hardrives are composed of hard disks. In addition the RAM’s contents are stored electronically in bits off the chips. Hardrive contents are stored magnetically which are based on binary numbers.
Therefore, both the RAM and hardrive hold data. Their main difference is how they hold data.
Marlon Sanchez