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Data storage

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected fromStorage media)
This article is about all forms of data storage. For data storage on computers in particular, seecomputer data storage.
Edison cylinder phonographc. 1899.Thephonograph cylinderis a storage medium. The phonograph may be considered a storage device especially as machines of this vintage were able to record on blank cylinders.
On areel-to-reel tape recorder(Sony TC-630), the recorder is data storage equipment and themagnetic tapeis a data storage medium.
Various electronic storage devices
DNAandRNAcan be considered as biological storage media.[1]
Computer memoryandcomputer data storagetypes
General
Volatile
RAM
Historical
Non-volatile
ROM
NVRAM
Early-stageNVRAM
Analog recording
Optical
In development
Historical

Data storageis the recording (storing) ofinformation(data) in astorage medium.Handwriting,phonographicrecording,magnetic tape,andoptical discsare all examples of storage media. Biological molecules such asRNAandDNAare considered by some as data storage.[1][2]Recording may be accomplished with virtually any form ofenergy.Electronic data storage requires electrical power to store and retrieve data.

Data storage in a digital, machine-readable medium is sometimes calleddigital data.Computer data storage is one of the core functions of ageneral-purpose computer.Electronic documentscan be stored in much less space than paperdocuments.[3]Barcodesandmagnetic ink character recognition(MICR) are two ways of recording machine-readable data on paper.

Recording media

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A recording medium is a physical material that holds information. Newly created information is distributed and can be stored in four storage media–print, film, magnetic, and optical–and seen or heard in four information flows–telephone, radio and TV, and the Internet[4]as well as being observed directly. Digital information is stored onelectronic mediain many differentrecording formats.

Withelectronic media,the data and the recording media are sometimes referred to as "software" despite the more common use of the word to describecomputer software.With (traditional art) static media,art materialssuch ascrayonsmay be considered both equipment and medium as the wax, charcoal or chalk material from the equipment becomes part of the surface of the medium.

Some recording media may be temporary either by design or by nature.Volatile organic compoundsmay be used topreserve the environmentor to purposely make data expire over time. Data such assmoke signalsorskywritingare temporary by nature. Depending on the volatility, agas(e.g.atmosphere,smoke) or a liquid surface such as alakewould be considered a temporary recording medium if at all.

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A 2003UC Berkeleyreport estimated that about fiveexabytesof new information were produced in 2002 and that 92% of this data was stored on hard disk drives. This was about twice the data produced in 2000.[5]The amount of data transmitted overtelecommunications systemsin 2002 was nearly 18 exabytes—three and a half times more than was recorded on non-volatile storage. Telephone calls constituted 98% of the telecommunicated information in 2002. The researchers' highest estimate for the growth rate of newly stored information (uncompressed) was more than 30% per year.

In a more limited study, theInternational Data Corporationestimated that the total amount of digital data in 2007 was 281 exabytes, and that the total amount of digital data produced exceeded the global storage capacity for the first time.[6]

A 2011Science Magazinearticle estimated that the year 2002 was the beginning of the digital age for information storage: an age in which more information is stored on digital storage devices than on analog storage devices.[7]In 1986, approximately 1% of the world's capacity to store information was in digital format; this grew to 3% by 1993, to 25% by 2000, and to 97% by 2007. These figures correspond to less than three compressedexabytesin 1986, and 295compressedexabytes in 2007.[7]The quantity of digital storage doubled roughly every three years.[8]

It is estimated that around 120 zettabytes of data will be generated in 2023,an increase of 60x from 2010, and that it will increase to 181 zettabytes generated in 2025.[9]

See also

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References

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  1. ^abGilbert, Walter(Feb 1986)."The RNA World".Nature.319(6055): 618.Bibcode:1986Natur.319..618G.doi:10.1038/319618a0.S2CID8026658.
  2. ^Hubert, Bert (9 January 2021)."DNA seen through the eyes of a coder".Retrieved12 September2022.
  3. ^Rotenstreich, Shmuel."The Difference between Electronic and Paper Documents"(PDF).George Washington University.Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 20 February 2020.Retrieved12 April2016.
  4. ^Lyman, Peter; Varian, Hal R. (October 23, 2003)."HOW MUCH INFORMATION 2003?"(PDF).UC Berkeley, School of Information Management and Systems. Archived fromthe originalon December 8, 2017.RetrievedNovember 25,2017.
  5. ^Maclay, Kathleen (28 October 2003)."Amount of new information doubled in last three years, UC Berkeley study finds".University of California, Berkeley.Retrieved2022-09-07.
  6. ^Theirer, Adam (14 March 2008)."IDC's" Diverse & Exploding Digital Universe "report".Retrieved2008-03-14.
  7. ^abHilbert, Martin; López, Priscila (2011)."The World's Technological Capacity to Store, Communicate, and Compute Information".Science.332(6025): 60–65.Bibcode:2011Sci...332...60H.doi:10.1126/science.1200970.PMID21310967.S2CID206531385.
  8. ^Hilbert, Martin (15 June 2011)."Video animation on The World's Technological Capacity to Store, Communicate, and Compute Information from 1986 to 2010".Archived fromthe originalon 2012-01-18.
  9. ^Duarte, Fabio (April 3, 2023)."Amount of Data Created Daily (2023)".RetrievedAugust 28,2023.

Further reading

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