Question

Write a brief (minimum 2 paragraphs, maximum 3) response to one of the three following topics: 1. Traditional, electromechanical Hard Drives vs SSD Drives. 2. CRT vs Plasma vs LCD displays 3. Dot matrix vs Laser vs InkJet printing

Answer 1

Hard Drives Vs SSD drives

Hard drive was invented by IBM in 1956. It uses magnetic storage to store and retrieve information from drives i.e., electromechanical data storage device. It was very popular after it's release . Initially very big in size , but after it became popular , the size gradually decreased with increase in storage capacity. It's a mechanical device and has a moving part due to which it has some friction loss because of which it makes noise. Nowadays hard drive is available in the market at cheap rates for large storage but the problem is that the moving part sometimes crashes and all data might be lost. Read write speed is slow in hard drive, hence to copy large amount of data to hard drive will take a lot of time.

Solid State Drive(SSD) is the advance technology of Hard drive in which problems of Hard drives are sought out to most extent. It was invented in 1970s where it was used by companies as RAM for faster access. The size gradually increased and it was began to use as permanent storage device. It's very expensive as it uses flash memory i.e., it doesn't require power to persist data on the device. SSD don't have any moving part, hence no problem of data loss or corrupt would be encountered. The read write speed of SSD is very fast way better than hard drive but it is very expensive with less storage compare to hard drive.

CRT vs Plasma vs LCD displays

CRT is the oldest display technologies that illuminates screen by using cathod rays. It makes use of a phosphorescent screen and a vacuum tube with one or more electron guns to display images. The images are created using electron beam which is accelerated,modulated and deflected on to the screen as per requirements and thereby an image is created on the screen. The cathod ray is the fast moving electrons that are subjected both horizontally and vertically on to the screen which illuminates when electrons hit at a rate which creates moving picture on the screen.

Plasma display provides better colour reproduction,high refresh rates,wide viewing angles etc. Images are formed using red,blue and green phosphors. A current is passed through the gas which lights up individual Red,Green and Blue phosphors which create image on the screen. Hence, plasma offer thin display compare to CRT. The power consumption is more with phenomenon like "burn in" which are reduced with advancement in technology.

LCD is the most common technology now a days. It uses liquid crystals which block light when electricity is passed through them to some extent unlike the gases used in Plasma. To see the picture on the screen, we need a back light. The old LCD uses cathod tubes for back light whereas new LCD uses LEDs for back light. The size of LCD nowadays is less due to LEDs and also it is power efficient with less amount of heat generation and also burn brighter.

Dot matrix vs Laser vs InkJet printing

Dot matrix is similar to typewriter but more complex. The image of font is in dotted manner. The characters are printed by striking against a soaked ribbon that produces dotted images.There is a plate between paper and the ribbon with a lot of small dots. It prints line by line using pins. It is slow and expensive.

Lase printer produces high quality text and graphics by passing laser beam on the paper. It is quite big and heavy and require fast paper feeding. They are found in places where high quality print is required with fast printing. Maintenance is high and very expensive.It uses a xerographic printing process, that uses a cylindrical drum coated with selenium to print an image.

Inkjet printers are the most common type of printers that are available in households. It is a type of printer that produces images through propelling droplets of ink onto the paper. They can range in prices and are usually small in size, depending on the company and the functions it can perform. More expensive models are available with copy, fax and scan functions.