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Bring yourself up to speed with our introductory content.
Get started
Bring yourself up to speed with our introductory content.
magneto-optical drive (MO)
The magneto-optical (MO) drive is a popular way to back up files on a personal computer. Continue Reading
ATA over Ethernet (AoE)
ATA over Ethernet (AoE) is an open source network protocol designed to connect storage devices and servers in a storage area network (SAN). ATA (Advanced Technology Attachment) is a standard interface for communication between storage devices; it is... Continue Reading
standalone dump
A standalone dump is the copying of the contents of computer main storage (random access memory) to another storage device, usually for the purpose of debugging a programming problem. Continue Reading
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IPI (Intelligent Peripheral Interface)
IPI (Intelligent Peripheral Interface) is a high-bandwidth interface between a computer and a hard disk or a tape device. Continue Reading
zoning
In a storage area network (SAN), zoning is the allocation of resources for device load balancing and for selectively allowing access to data only to certain users. Continue Reading
capacity optimization (CO)
Capacity optimization (CO) is a technique for getting more data on a storage medium by analyzing the data for unique repetitive patterns that can be stored as and reassembled from shorter symbols.Continue Reading
portability
Portability is a characteristic attributed to a computer program if it can be used in an operating systems other than the one in which it was created without requiring major rework.Continue Reading
sector
On a computer diskette or hard disk, a sector is one of the "pie slices" the diskette or disk is divided into.Continue Reading
SmartMedia card
A SmartMedia card (originally called a solid-state floppy disk card, or SSFDC) is a memory card developed by Toshiba that uses flash memory to store data and to make it portable among devices, such as digital cameras, personal digital assistants (...Continue Reading
dropout
A dropout is a small loss of data in an audio or video file on tape or disk.Continue Reading
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Ultra DMA (UDMA or Ultra DMA/33)
Ultra DMA (UDMA, or, more accurately, Ultra DMA/33) is a protocol for transferring data between a hard disk drive through the computer's data paths (or bus) to the computer's random access memory (RAM).Continue Reading
FRAM (ferroelectric RAM)
FRAM (ferroelectric RAM) is random access memory that combines the fast read and write access of dynamic RAM (DRAM) - the most common kind of personal computer memory - with the ability to retain data when power is turned off (as do other ...Continue Reading
WRAM (Window RAM)
Window RAM (WRAM), unrelated to Microsoft Windows, is very high-performance video RAM that is dual-ported and has about 25% more bandwidth than VRAM but costs less.Continue Reading
Standard MIDI File (SMF)
The SMF (Standard MIDI File) was developed to allow musicians and audio file developers to transfer their sequenced MIDI data from one software application to another.Continue Reading
PLEDM (phase-state low electron drive memory)
PLEDM (phase-state low electron drive memory) is a new memory microchip technology that offers vastly greater capacity than memory devices commonly used in the past.Continue Reading
disk cache
A disk cache is a mechanism for improving the time it takes to read from or write to a hard disk.Continue Reading
Andrew file system (AFS)
An Andrew file system (AFS) is a location-independent file system that uses a local cache to reduce the workload and increase the performance of a distributed computing environment.Continue Reading
Sound Designer II (SD2)
SDII (Sound Designer II, sometimes seen abbreviated as SD2) is a monophonic/stereophonic audio file format, originally developed by Digidesign for their Macintosh-based recording/editing products.Continue Reading
thin-film disk
A thin-film disk is a hard disk storage medium with a very thin coating of a metallic alloy or glass instead of the usual carbon-based material found on other types of hard disks.Continue Reading
pipeline burst cache
A pipeline burst cache is a cache or storage area for a computer processor that is designed to be read from or written to in a pipelining succession of four data transfers (or bursts) in which later bursts can start to flow or transfer before the ...Continue Reading
magnetoresistive head technology
Magnetoresistive (MR) head technology is used in disk drives to allow higher storage densities than the older inductive-head technology.Continue Reading
shadow RAM
Shadow RAM is a copy of Basic Input/Output Operating System (BIOS) routines from read-only memory (ROM) into a special area of random access memory (RAM) so that they can be accessed more quickly.Continue Reading
Jaz drive
A Jaz drive is a small, portable hard disk drive used primarily for backing up and archiving personal computer files.Continue Reading
thin server
In the computer industry, a thin server is a PC that contains just enough hardware and software to support a particular function that users can share in a network, such as access to files on a storage device, access to CD-ROM drives, printing, or ...Continue Reading
DRDRAM (Rambus Dynamic Random Access Memory)
RDRAM (Rambus Dynamic Random Access Memory) is a memory subsystem that promises to transfer up to 1.6 billion bytes per second.Continue Reading
exabyte (EB)
An exabyte (EB) is a large unit of computer data storage, two to the sixtieth power bytes.Continue Reading
HSM (Hierarchical Storage Management)
HSM (Hierarchical Storage Management) is policy-based management of file backup and archiving in a way that uses storage devices economically and without the user needing to be aware of when files are being retrieved from backup storage media.Continue Reading
Memory Stick
Developed by Sony, the Memory Stick is a digital data storage technology with up to 10 times the storage capacity of a 3.5 diskette.Continue Reading
giant magnetoresistive effect
GMR is the newest generation of hard disk drive storage.Continue Reading
single-electron memory (SEM)
Single-electron memory (SEM) refers to experimental hardware technologies in which the position or presence of a single charge carrier, usually an electron, makes the difference between the logical low (0) and high (1) states in a digital system.Continue Reading
helical scan
Helical scan is a way of recording information onto magnetic tape.Continue Reading
protected mode
Protected mode is a mode of program operation in a computer with an Intel-based microprocessor in which the program is restricted to addressing a specific contiguous area of 640 kilobytes.Continue Reading