Tutorial 6: WRES1201 – Computer System Architecture
1) Define the terms track, cylinder and sector?
Track is a concentric circle on the surface of a disk where data is magnetically
recorded and read. Each platter surface contains multiple tracks, and each track is
divided into sectors. Tracks are like circular paths on the surface of the disk platter.
Cylinder refers to the set of tracks that are aligned vertically across all platters in a
disk stack. In other words, if you were to draw a line through the same track number
on each platter (top to bottom), the group of those tracks forms a cylinder. This
concept is used when reading or writing data to multiple platters simultaneously.
Sector is a subdivision of a track on a magnetic disk or optical disc. It is the smallest
unit that can be read or written. Each sector typically stores a fixed amount of user
data, such as 512 bytes or 4 KB, depending on the disk formatting.
2) Define the terms seek time, rotational delay (latency), access time, and transfer time.
Seek time is the amount of time it takes for the disk's read/write head to move to the
track where the desired data is located. In a movable-head system, this involves
physically moving the head assembly. In a fixed-head system, it involves
electronically selecting the correct head.
Rotational delay (latency) is the time it takes for the beginning of the desired sector to
rotate around and align under the read/write head. It is typically estimated as half the
time of a full disk rotation.
Access time is the total time required to retrieve data from the disk. It is the sum of
the seek time and the rotational delay.
Transfer time is the time it takes to actually move the data once the read/write head is
correctly positioned.
3) What common characteristics are shared by all RAID levels?
Common characteristics that shared by all RAID levels are the RAID system presents
multiple physical disks to the operating system as one single logical storage unit. This
abstraction simplifies management and improves flexibility.
Data is split into "strips" and distributed (striped) across multiple disks in the array.
This improves performance by allowing parallel access to different parts of the data.
4) How is redundancy achieved in a RAID levels?
Mirroring provides redundancy by duplication.
Parity provides redundancy by storing error-checking information that can be used to
reconstruct lost data.
5) Consider a single platter disk with the following parameters: rotation speed:
7200rpm; number of tracks on one side of platter: 30 000; number of sectors per
track: 600; seek time: one ms for every hundred tracks traversed. Let the disk receive
a request to access a random sector on a random track and assume the disk head starts
at track 0.
a) What is the average seek time?
Average tracks traversed = 30000/2 = 15000
Average seek time = 15000/100 x 1ms = 150ms
b) What is the average rotational latency?
Rotational speed in rps = 7200 / 60 = 120rps
Time per revolution = 1/120 = 0.00833seconds = 8.33ms
Average rotational latency = 8.33 / 2 = 4.17ms
c) What is the transfer time for a sector?
Transfer time = 8.33ms / 600 = 0.01389ms
d) What is the total average time to satisfy a request?
Total average time = 150ms + 4.17ms + 0.01389ms
= 154.18ms
6) Consider a magnetic disk drive with 16 surfaces, 512 tracks per surface, and 64
sectors per track. Sector size is 1KB. The average seek time is 6 ms, the track-to-track
access time is 1ms, and the drive rotates at 3600 rpm. Successive tracks in a cylinder
can be read without head movement.
a) What is the disk capacity?
Disk capacity = 16 x 512 x 64 x 1KB
= 524288 KB
= 512 MB
b) What is the average access time?
Rotational speed = 3600 rpm = 60rps
Time per revolution = 1/60 = 0.01667 sec = 16.67ms
Average rotational latency = 16.67 / 2 = 8.33ms
Average access time = 6 + 8.33
= 14.33ms
c) Estimate the time required to transfer a 5MB file.
Time per sector = 16.67 / 64 = 0.2605ms/sector
Total transfer tiem = 5120 x 0.2605 = 1334.26ms = 1.33 seconds
d) What is the burst transfer rate?
Burst transfer rate = 64 x 1 KB /16.67ms
= 64KB / 0.016667sec
= 3.84 MB/s
7) Consider a 4 drive, 300GB per drive RAID array. What is the available data storage
capacity for each of the RAID levels, 0, 1, 3, 4, 5, and 6?
Available capacity of RAID 0 = 4 x 300GB = 1200GB
Available capacity of RAID 1 = 1200/2 = 600GB
RAID 3 = (4 - 1) × 300 GB = 900 GB
RAID 4 = (4 - 1) × 300 GB = 900 GB
RAID 5 = (4 - 1) × 300 GB = 900 GB
RAID 6 = (4 - 2) × 300 GB = 600 GB