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Semi-virtual Diskette
A floppy disk hardware emulator or semi-virtual diskette (SVD) is a device that emulates a floppy disk drive with a solid state or network storage device that is plug compatible with the drive it replaces, similar to how solid-state drives replace mechanical hard disk drives. History Older models of computers, electronic musical instruments and industrial automation often used floppy disk drives for data transfer. Older equipment may be difficult to replace or upgrade because of cost, requirement for continuous availability or unavailable upgrades. Proper operation may require operating system, software and data to be read and written from and to floppies, forcing users to maintain floppy drives on supporting systems. Floppy disks and floppy drives are gradually going out of production, and replacement of malfunctioning drives, and the systems hosting them, is becoming increasingly difficult. Floppy disks themselves are fragile, or may need to be replaced often. An alterna ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Floppy Hardware Emulator
A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, a diskette, or a disk) is a type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined with a fabric that removes dust particles from the spinning disk. The three most popular (and commercially available) floppy disks are the 8-inch, 5¼-inch, and 3½-inch floppy disks. Floppy disks store digital data which can be read and written when the disk is inserted into a floppy disk drive (FDD) connected to or inside a computer or other device. The first floppy disks, invented and made by IBM in 1971, had a disk diameter of . Subsequently, the 5¼-inch (133.35 mm) and then the 3½-inch (88.9 mm) became a ubiquitous form of data storage and transfer into the first years of the 21st century. 3½-inch floppy disks can still be used with an external USB floppy disk drive. USB drives for 5¼-inch, 8-inch, and other-size floppy disks are rare t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Secure Digital Card
Secure Digital (SD) is a proprietary, non-volatile, flash memory card format developed by the SD Association (SDA). Owing to their compact size, SD cards have been widely adopted in a variety of portable consumer electronics, including digital cameras, camcorders, video game consoles, mobile phones, action cameras, and camera drones. The SD format was introduced in August 1999 by SanDisk, Panasonic (then known as Matsushita), and Kioxia (then part of Toshiba). It was designed as a successor to the MultiMediaCard (MMC) format, introducing several improvements aimed at enhancing usability, durability, and performance, which contributed to its rapid emergence as an industry standard. To manage the licensing and intellectual property rights related to the format, the three companies established SD-3C, LLC. In January 2000, they also founded the SDA, a non-profit organization dedicated to developing and promoting SD card standards. As of 2023, the SDA includes approximatel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Computer Peripherals
A peripheral device, or simply peripheral, is an auxiliary hardware device that a computer uses to transfer information externally. A peripheral is a hardware component that is accessible to and controlled by a computer but is not a core component of the computer. A peripheral can be categorized based on the direction in which information flows relative to the computer: * The computer receives data from an '' input device''; examples: mouse, keyboard, scanner, game controller, microphone and webcam * The computer sends data to an '' output device''; examples: monitor, printer, headphones, and speakers * The computer sends and receives data via an ''input/output device''; examples: storage device (such as disk drive, solid-state drive, USB flash drive, memory card and tape drive), modem, router, gateway and network adapter Many modern electronic devices, such as Internet-enabled digital watches, video game consoles, smartphones, and tablet computers, have ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Retrocomputing
Retrocomputing is the current use of Vintage computer, older computer hardware and software. Retrocomputing is usually classed as a hobby and recreation rather than a practical application of technology; enthusiasts often collect rare and valuable Electronic hardware, hardware and software for sentimental reasons. Occasionally, however, an obsolete computer system has to be "resurrected" to run software specific to that system, to access data stored on obsolete media, or to use a peripheral that requires that system. Retrocomputing and retro gaming has been described as Digital preservation, preservation activity and as aspects of the remix culture. Hardware retrocomputing Historic systems Retrocomputing is part of the history of computer hardware. It can be seen as the analogue of experimental archaeology in computing. Some notable examples include the reconstruction of Babbage's Difference engine (more than a century after its design) and the implementation of Plankalkül in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Solid-state Drive
A solid-state drive (SSD) is a type of solid-state storage device that uses integrated circuits to store data persistently. It is sometimes called semiconductor storage device, solid-state device, or solid-state disk. SSDs rely on non-volatile memory, typically NAND flash, to store data in memory cells. The performance and endurance of SSDs vary depending on the number of bits stored per cell, ranging from high-performing single-level cells (SLC) to more affordable but slower quad-level cells (QLC). In addition to flash-based SSDs, other technologies such as 3D XPoint offer faster speeds and higher endurance through different data storage mechanisms. Unlike traditional hard disk drives (HDDs), SSDs have no moving parts, allowing them to deliver faster data access speeds, reduced latency, increased resistance to physical shock, lower power consumption, and silent operation. Often interfaced to a system in the same way as HDDs, SSDs are used in a variety of devices, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
RAM Drive
A RAM drive (also called a RAM disk) is a block of random-access memory (primary storage or volatile memory) that a computer's software is treating as if the memory were a disk drive (secondary storage). RAM drives provide high-performance temporary storage for demanding tasks and protect non-volatile storage devices from wearing down, since RAM is not prone to wear from writing, unlike non-volatile flash memory. It is sometimes referred to as a virtual RAM drive or software RAM drive to distinguish it from a hardware RAM drive that uses separate hardware containing RAM, which is a type of battery-backed solid-state drive. Historically primary storage based mass storage devices were conceived to bridge the performance gap between internal memory and secondary storage devices. In the advent of solid-state devices this advantage lost most of its appeal. However, solid-state devices do suffer from wear from frequent writing. Primary memory writes do not so or in far lesser effect. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Disk Image
A disk image is a snapshot of a storage device's content typically stored in a file on another storage device. Traditionally, a disk image was relatively large because it was a bit-by-bit copy of every storage location of a device (i.e. every sector of a hard disk drive), but it is now common to only store allocated data to reduce storage space. Compression and deduplication are commonly used to further reduce the size of image files. Disk imaging is performed for a variety of purposes including digital forensics, cloud computing, system administration, backup, and emulation for digital preservation strategy. Despite the benefits, storage costs can be high, management can be difficult and imaging can be time consuming. Disk images can be made in a variety of formats depending on the purpose. Virtual disk images (such as VHD and VMDK) are intended to be used for cloud computing, ISO images are intended to emulate optical media, such as a CD-ROM. Raw disk images are use ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Disk Partitioning
Disk partitioning or disk slicing is the creation of one or more regions on secondary storage, so that each region can be managed separately. These regions are called partitions. It is typically the first step of preparing a newly installed disk after a partitioning scheme is chosen for the new disk before any file system is created. The disk stores the information about the partitions' locations and sizes in an area known as the partition table that the operating system reads before any other part of the disk. Each partition then appears to the operating system as a distinct "logical" disk that uses part of the actual disk. System administrators use a program called a partition editor to create, resize, delete, and manipulate the partitions. Partitioning allows the use of different filesystems to be installed for different kinds of files. Separating user data from system data can prevent the system partition from becoming full and rendering the system unusable. Partitioning can ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phase-locked Loop
A phase-locked loop or phase lock loop (PLL) is a control system that generates an output signal whose phase is fixed relative to the phase of an input signal. Keeping the input and output phase in lockstep also implies keeping the input and output frequencies the same, thus a phase-locked loop can also track an input frequency. Furthermore, by incorporating a frequency divider, a PLL can generate a stable frequency that is a multiple of the input frequency. These properties are used for clock synchronization, demodulation, frequency synthesis, clock multipliers, and signal recovery from a noisy communication channel. Since 1969, a single integrated circuit can provide a complete PLL building block, and nowadays have output frequencies from a fraction of a hertz up to many gigahertz. Thus, PLLs are widely employed in radio, telecommunications, computers (e.g. to distribute precisely timed clock signals in microprocessors), grid-tie inverters (electronic power converters used ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frequency Modulation
Frequency modulation (FM) is a signal modulation technique used in electronic communication, originally for transmitting messages with a radio wave. In frequency modulation a carrier wave is varied in its instantaneous frequency in proportion to a property, primarily the instantaneous amplitude, of a message signal, such as an audio signal. The technology is used in telecommunications, radio broadcasting, signal processing, and Run-length limited#FM: .280.2C1.29 RLL, computing. In Analog signal, analog frequency modulation, such as radio broadcasting of voice and music, the instantaneous frequency deviation, i.e. the difference between the frequency of the carrier and its center frequency, has a functional relation to the modulating signal amplitude. Digital data can be encoded and transmitted with a type of frequency modulation known as frequency-shift keying (FSK), in which the instantaneous frequency of the carrier is shifted among a set of frequencies. The frequencies m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
