Power Supply Cooling And Protection

Power Supply Functions Provide PCs lifeblood by supplying electricity to each and every component

It takes A.C Power from the wall outlet and convert it into much lower DC voltages needed by the system and thereby supply clean electrical power to the system
Interacts with motherboard to perform CPU startup,system power down,voltage and temperature detectionand other functions Provide the following supply voltages +5 V : It is the basic supply voltage used for nearly all the electronic components +12V :Used by some motors used in PC,communication ports like serial port etc

Power Supply Cooling And Protection

-12V : Very few devices use this voltage.Typically used for some of the serial ports that use +12V line -5V : This voltage is no longer used by any device and is retained in order to achieve backward compatibility with the older ISA slots .The same voltage was used by some of the DRAM memory chips in the original PC design +3.3 V:Introduced with ATX design from 1995 Currently most CPUs, DRAM and PCI adapter cards uses 3.3 Volts Power Supply Working and block diagram Switch mode power supply (SMPS) is used in pcs whereas linear mode power supply is used in the old mainframe computers

Block diagram of SMPS and Linear mode power Supply

Power Supply Cooling And Protection

Power supply working and block diagram

The first part of switching power supply directly converts AC to DC The switcher circuit chops up the input voltage to a much higher frequency than the input AC frequency This makes PC immune to high voltage variations. Any load fluctuations are fed back to the input which causes the switcher circuit to adjust the input power to the transformer so that it can maintain the same output voltage to the final regulator circuit which makes the regulator works with greater efficiency Switching circuits are vulnerable to voltage surges and hence the PC power supplies are equipped with additional filter circuitry on the input

Power Supply Cooling And Protection

Power Supply Signals a) Power Good signal It is denoted as PWR_OK or Pwr_Good and is a logic level on/off signal

This signal is the power supply output signal to the CPU circuitry is used to start the CPU running This signal will turn on until all the power supply voltages are correct and stabilized

b) Power-on Signal It is the part of the ATX standard

It carries a low voltage logic level signal from the motherboard to the power supply telling it when to turn on and when to turn off

Power Supply Cooling And Protection

Power Supply Signals (contd) When the front panel on/off switch is activated through motherboard, the motherboard uses the PS-ON signal to tell the power supply to power up fully c)+5VSB : The purpose of this supply line is to power stand by circuitry such as PS_ON circuit, the wake-on LAN and remote ring-on circuitry, intrusion detection or any other circuit the designer wishes to have active even while in stand by mode d)+3.3 Sense : New signal introduced with the ATX power standard Used to sense the actual voltage of 3.3 volt supply when it reach the motherboard. This allows the power supply to actively adjust the 3.3 V output to compensate the line lose between power supply and mother board

Power Supply Cooling And Protection

Power Supply Form Factors Full sized AT and XT power supplies Made by IBM

Available with power supply from 135 to 300 watts

Use standard P8/P9 pair of connectors (6pin) for motherboard,two to four drive connectors with four pins each Out of the two motherboard connectors ,each connector has 6 keys with one key larger than the rest Position of the single large key is different for two connectors and hence cannot swap them accidentally The pin out arrangement of the AT/XT standard motherboard power connectors are as shown below

Power Supply Cooling And Protection

Power Supply Cooling And Protection

On power supply connectors to the drives and for the large drives two of the corners are squared off while the other two are chamfered to allow the plug to fit only in one way For smaller power connectors a small raised bump on the bottom of the connector fits into the notch in the receptacle

Mini XT Form factor Use exactly the same power connectors as full sized AT and XT

Uses a remote mounted power switch on the front panel from which power cable carrying 230v AC is connected. This can cause a serious potential shock hazard

ATX Form factor The major features of ATX standard are as listed below Front panel power switch carry only a harmless logic level signal

Remote power control : Wake-on-LAN whereby system administrator from any where on the network can turn on ,turn off or reboot the system

Power Supply Cooling And Protection

Features of ATX form factor (contd) and wake-on-ring whereby dial-in system can normally be in stand by mode until a user dials into the system Stand-by mode Also called sleep or suspend mode

Stand-by mode allows most of the systems to shut down except the supply line carrying +5vsb for the circuits that need to remain energized to wake up the system on some event Optimum cooling : ATX power supply cooling fan is placed directly over or next to the CPU so that optimum airflow occurs over the CPU and hence eliminate the need of a separate cooling fan +3.3 V power supply : In older mother boards +5V supply voltage is converted to 3.3 V needed for the CPU and DRAM which generates heat and the same is solved in ATX standard by directly allowing 3.3 V supply

Power Supply Cooling And Protection

Features of ATX form factor (contd) Single polarized motherboard connector : The single motherboard connector used in ATX design is polarized in such a way that it is practically impossible to insert it incorrectly

NLX and SFX power supplies These are the new versions of ATX design

NLX design is intended to be low profile It uses a custom power supply design that meets the standards SFX standard applies to smaller implementations of the ATX standard which includes micro ATX (limited to 4 adapter cards) , ATX flex(limited to 3 slots )

SFX standard can include older ISA slots

5V stand by mode is optional

Power Supply Cooling And Protection

Ventilation and cooling protection Power supply fan Power supply fan can move air by using positive pressure ventilation or negative pressure ventilation

Positive pressure ventilation is used in PC file servers in which the air comes in through one point entry in which it can be filtered before reaching the system electronics but have the following disadvantages a) Periodic maintenance is required for cleaning the filter without which the airflow may block and will cause the system to overheat b) Filter reduces airflow

c) Power supply preheats the airflow which occur if the fan inside the power supply exhaust air over the CPU after it had already received heat from the power supply Typical PC system always use a negative pressure ventilation to move air through the system or single point exhaust

Power Supply Cooling And Protection

Power supply fan placement Power supply fan can be placed either in the back panel or in the interior panel of the power supply closer to the CPU

If it is placed in the back panel , the air flow pulled over the CPU toward the power supply will not be good

Fan specifications and Temperature monitoring The ability of the fan to move air through the system is measured in Cubic Feet Per Minute (CFM)

The practical way of determining whether the power supply fan or chasis fan is sufficient to keep the system cool is to record the internal temperatures in several areas inside the case which includes CPU, inlet to the power supply, inlet to the chassis ventilation fan if exist ,video card ,high powered graphic accelerator card etc External ambient temperature is measured

Power Supply Cooling And Protection

Fan specifications and Temperature monitoring If the difference between intake and exhaust temperatures of the power supply is very large say 10 degree then the power supply may be under excessive stress

If the difference between the external temperature and the temperature inside the case is too great ,a problem had occurred to reduce air flow through the case If the inlet temperature to the fan inside the case is reasonable but the direct CPU temperature is too hotCPU heat cannot be able to effectively removed

Processor Cooling The following are the devices that help to cool the CPU a) CPU cooling fan :From Pentium and newer processors all chips require some kind of fan mounted on the heat sink to allow adequate air flow through the cooling fans b) CPU heat sink : All processors since 486 have needed heat sink Heat sink is a piece of metal in contact with the chip casing and with radiator fins exposed to the air flow. Some CPU use a fan mounted on the heat sink

Power Supply Cooling And Protection

Processor Cooling(contd) c) Chasis or power supply fan ATX and NLX chasis designs make provisions for cooling most CPUs without using a CPU fan by positioning the power supplyfan or chasis ventilation fan directly next to CPU d) Peltier Junction cooling elements These are electrical heat pumps where application of electrical energy causes one side of the Ceramic sandwich to get cold and the other side to become hot. This type of cooling can reduce the chip temperature below ambient temperature. Hence Peltier junction cooling system should include some kind of thermostatic control so that CPU cannot be over cooled

Power Supply Cooling And Protection

Temperature Limit a)Repeated temperature changes : Repeated changes in temperature (70 to 120 Fahrenheit) can cause unreliability in electrical connectors like sockets ,slots , cables etc Older DIP chips can come out of the socket completely after too much heating and cooling cycles and is called chip walking b)Temperature above 110 fahrenheit :Many products will warm if the temperature exceeds 110 F. The problematic components include chips, drives, connectors, plastic retaining clips used in SIMM c) Temperature above 130F: Manufacturers suggest that any internal temperature above 130 F is not acceptable

d) Direct contact CPU temperature: Technically most CPUs are rated to perform at temperature as high as 170 F. The temperature of the heat sink have to be at least 10 F lower than the chip rating and certainly not higher which may cause eratic operation of the CPU

Power Supply Cooling And Protection

Temperature Limit(contd) Hot spots :Air flow focussed in some area may create hot spots especially near the video card with AGP

Temperature Alarms : Several temperature alarms are available in the market and it will be a good idea to incorporate these alarms in the system when the internal temperature go above 110 F and is usually placed at the inlet of the power supply
Temperature Monitoring: Temperature monitoring is built into the mother board with sensors placed near the CPU and other locations in the motherboard to measure internal temperature Ambient temperature and CFM : A higher ambient external temperature will result in high internal temperature and can only be compensated by increasing the air flow inside the machine by fitting CPU fans/powersupply fans etc with high CFM ratings

Power Supply Cooling And Protection

Backup power systems UPS Types a)SPS (Stand by power source ) It is a back up power source and will remain in stand by mode if the utility power stayed within an acceptable range.If the utility power is varied outside that range the battery circuit will be switched on and the PC system will be disconnected from the utility powerand connected to the battery powered inverter Most of today low cost UPS are SPS b) True Online UPS Its cost is about two to three times the price of an SPS. These UPS units have battery online all the time which requires more maintenance. It provides better isolation from power surges and spikes. It usually have a pure sine wave output

Power Supply Cooling And Protection

UPS Types (contd) c) Ferro resonent UPS : Older SPS designs with zero switch over time.It has an intermediate transformer that bridge over the time between switching off of utility power and switching on of battery power d) Hybrid online UPS :The utility power is constantly rectified to DC and the switch over is made between rectified utility DC power and battery DC power with both feeding the inverter which is always supplying 230V of output.It is an ideal combination because the battery circuit is not used unless needed and the utility power goes through a rectification stage that eliminates any chance of surges and spikes getting through

e) Line Interactive UPS :When the utility power is good it passes it through the unit to the output. Part of the AC power passes through the invertor circuit will charge the battery when the utility power is active.when the utility power goes down or bad , it draw the power from the battery to run the invertor

Power Supply Cooling And Protection

UPS Output waveform Square wave form : Not recommended for PC Stepped square wave or modified square wave Not recommended for PC and would not be suitable for some power supply Step approximated sine wave : If the Total Harmonic Distortion is <28 %,the power supply retain 95% of its expected life True Sine wave : Recommended for PC power supply or any other electronic devices Guidelines for choosing UPS a) Check the output waveform .Never use a UPS with a square-wave output. If the UPS has a modified square wave or approximated sine wave output check to make sure that the THD is less than 28 % b) Standard UPS systems are ok but only if the switch over time is less than 6 milliseconds. Ferro resonant UPS systems have problems with some PCs and so should be avoided

Power Supply Cooling And Protection

Guidelines for choosing UPS (contd) c) Check the surge suppression specifications .True online UPS have almost perfect isolation from utility power and any power line surges at all times. If the built in surge suppression does not meet the minimum requirement you can add a surge suppressor between the UPS output and the PC power input. d) Size the UPS according to maximum load of the units you have plugged into the UPS

Storage devices communicate with the system through interface Interface consists of all the components that lie between the storage device and the computer system bus which include a separate adapter card, an adapter integrated into the motherboard, a separate controller and one or more cables Primary interface types used in PCs today are the Enhanced Integrated Drive Electronics (EIDE) and the Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI) Most Pcs have EIDEs integrated into motherboard

Mass Storage Interfaces SCSI is usually implemented with an external adapter card installed into the systems expansion bus

Pcs have a separate controller for floppy disc drives integrated into the motherboard

Mass Storage Interfaces

IDE Interface(contd)

In IDE the communication between the controller and the drive unit do not have to be standardized and the IDE manufacturers can modify the communications between the drive and the controller in whatever they want because the two components are inseparable

ATA standards For IBM AT computer that first introduced 16 bit ISA bus use the IDE interface used by the IDE drives named as AT attachment (ATA) interface and today ATA interface is the industry standard. Four updates have been made to the ATA standard since its inception These standards have been designed to remain backward compatibility

ATA standards are designed by Technical committee T13 of the National Committee on Information Technology standards (NCITS) using development process approved by the American National standards Institute (ANSI)

Mass Storage Interfaces

IDE Interface Majority of PC use an interface called IDE for hard drives and other storage devices

IDE stands for Integrated Drive Electronics

In IDE controller is built into the drive instead of being a separate unit. This makes the communications between the controller and the drive more efficient Drive controller perform the function of converting the digital signals generated by the computer to analog signals that can be written to magnetic media In IDE the entire conversion process occurs inside one unit and the controller can send the converted data to the drive almost instantaneously

Mass Storage Interfaces

ATA standards (contd) ATA standard were in use from 1988 but was approved from 1994 when it was published as ANSI X3.221-1994 as AT attachment

Interface for disk

ATA-2 standard ATA-2 standard was designed and published as ANSI X3.279-1996, AT Attachment Interface With Extensions in 1996

Introduced to overcome the short comings of ATA standard which has less speed and limited drive capabilities up to 504 Mb
ATA-2 expands the available data transfer modes to include PIO modes 3 and 4 and multiword DMA modes 1 and 2 which increases the speed of ATA-2 by almost 100 percent ATA-2 introduces power management functions ,block mode transfers , group read or write commands for execution with a single interrupt

Mass Storage Interfaces

ATA-2 standard (contd)

ATA-2 standard introduced logical block addressing (LBA) which breaks the 528 MB disk size barrier This standard adds Identify Drive Instruction to the AT command set. This enables the drive to supply its own detailed information to the system. This enables the BIOS to automatically configure itself to access the drive instead of entering the settings of the drive manually

FAST ATA and FAST ATA-2 FAST ATA-2 manufactured by Seagate and Quantum conform almost the same as ATA-2 standard

FAST ATA drives are the same as FAST ATA-2 dives except that they do not support PIO mode 4 or multiword DMA mode 2

Mass Storage Interfaces

Enhanced IDE

a)

EIDE conforms to ATA-2 standard with two additions Inclusion of two host adapters enabling the system to support up to four devices Inclusion of ATA Packet Interface (ATAPI) which provides support for devices other than hard disk drives on the IDE interface. This provides room for the CD-ROM drives to become standard equipment on PCs

b)

ATA-3

Published in 1996 as ANSI X3.298-1997,AT Attachment-3 interface The standard increases the reliability of IDE interface by introducing bus termination at both ends of the IDE cable to reduce noise The standard defines Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology (SMART) which is a system for monitoring the performance of IDE devices and anticipating problems using a technique called predictive failure analysis

Mass Storage Interfaces

ATA-4 AT Attachment-4 with Packet Interface Extension defines the use of additional devices such as CDROM ,cartridge and tape drives on the IDE interface

This standard introduces a new data transfer mode named Ultra DMA mod 2 running at 33 MB/sec which is also known as UDMA 33 or ultrATA/33 .This transfer mode doubles the theoretical maximum throughput provided by the PIO and DMA modes ATA-4 support Advanced Power Management (APM) standard. Allows IDE cable to facilitate data transfers running at high speeds, support for compact flash adapters and BIOS enhancements that makes PCs to support drives up to 9.4 trillion GB

ATA-5 In this standard Ultra DMA transfer rate is increased from 33 MB/sec to 44 MB/Sec which is called Ultra DMA mode 3 and 66 MB/sec called Ultra DMA mode 4 or UDMA/66

Mass Storage Interfaces

ATA-6 Even though ATA-5 standard have not yet been ratified ,work is proceeding to the next version of the standard AT-Attachment 6 with

packet interface

This standard will define an Ultra DMA mode 5 running at 100 MB/sec Data Transfer Modes The three commonly used data transfer modes that increase the speed at which the system can read data and write data to the drive are a) Programmed Input Output (PIO) b) Direct Memory Access (DMA) c) Ultra DMA

The transfer modes supported by the computer and the drives that are placed in it are the important factors that decide the overall performance of IDE installation

Mass Storage Interfaces

Data Transfer Modes ( contd ) For a system to use a particular data transfer mode both the drive and the system must support a given transfer mode PIO Transfer Modes

Programmed Input /Output is a protocol for transferring data that uses the systems processor as an intermediary data path

The speed of transfer is determined by the data cycle time of a particular mode which is the maximum amount of time in which 16 bits are transferred to or fro the drive measure in nanoseconds
PIO transfer is available in mode 0,1,2,3,4 respectively and the data transfer rates for different modes are as given below

Mass Storage Interfaces

Table : PIO Transfer Modes and Standards

PIO Mode Maximum Transfer rate (MB/sec) 0 3.3

Data Supporting Standards Cycle Time (ns) 600 All

1
2 3 4

5.2
8.3 11.1 16.6

383
240 180 120

All
All ATA-2,Fast ATA , Fast ATA-2, ATA-3 , ATAPI , Ultra DMA , EIDE ATA-2,Fast ATA-2,ATA-3,ATAPI, Ultra DMA,EIDE

Mass Storage Interfaces

DMA Transfer Modes Data is transferred directly between the drive and the system memory without using processor as an intermediary

Processor is relieved from the burden of data transfer and thereby improves the overall efficiency of the system
DMA channels are built into the ISA bus through which data transfer takes place. DMA channels are implemented by a DMA controller built into the chipset on the computers motherboard In the earlier PC the DMA transfer modes used are single-word DMA modes which are now obsolete and have been removed from the ATA standard

The other form of DMA that PC use for data transfers is called multiword DMA or Bus mastering DMA where the DMA controller circuitry are built into the drive controller itself rather than on the mother board

Mass Storage Interfaces

DMA Transfer Modes (contd)

IDE interface that uses bus mastering DMA modes utilizes the PCI bus to provide superior data transfer rates

The following table illustrates the data transfer speed of Single word DMA transfer modes and Bus mastering (multiword) DMA transfer modes Single Word DMA Mode 0 Maximum Transfer rate (MB/Sec) 2.1

1
2

4.2
8.3

Mass Storage Interfaces

DMA Mode 0 1

Maximum Data Cycle Transfer Rate Time (ns) (MB/Sec) 4.2 13.3 480 150

Supporting standards

All ATA-2, Fast ATA , Fast ATA2 , ATA -3,Ultra DMA , EIDE ATA-2 , Fast ATA-2, ATA-3, Ultra DMA , EIDE

16.6

120

Mass Storage Interfaces

Ultra DMA Transfer Mode Most of the drives being manufactured today support Ultra DMA mode2

If the interface of the computer does not support Ultra DMA, an expansion card introduced by the company named Promise Technology that upgrades the system BIOS and provides an interface that supports Ultra DMA The data transfer rates and the supporting standards for Ultra DMA transfer mode is as shown below

Mass Storage Interfaces

Ultra DMA Mode 0 1 2 Maximum Transfer Rate (MB/Sec) 16.6 25.0 33.3 Data Cycle Time (ns) Supporting Standards

240 160 120

ATA-4,ATA-5,ATA-6,Ultra ATA/33 ,Ultra ATA/66 ATA-4,ATA-5,ATA-6,ultraATA/33 ,ultraATA/66 ATA-4,ATA-5,ATA-6,ultraATA/33 ,ultraATA/66

3
4 5

44.4
66.6 100

90
60 40

ATA-4,ATA-5,ATA-6,ultraATA/33 ,ultraATA/66
ATA-5 , ATA-6,ultraATA/66 ATA-6

Mass Storage Interfaces

The SCSI Interface The Small Computer Systems Interface is one of the most popular PC drive interface in use today

SCSI supports more devices and device types and is expensive

It is best suited to network environments in which many users are accessing a shared drives simultaneously Generally a SCSI interface is not built into the PC ,the user have to purchase a SCSI host adapter card and install it into a bus slot and SCSI device to the host adapter which forms an independent bus within the computer. This bus enables the devices to communicate among themselves without involving the rest of the computer Designed to support wide variety of devices including hard disk drives CD-ROM drives, tape drives , Cartridge drives ,media changers , Graphics scanners etc

Mass Storage Interfaces

The SCSI Interface (cont d) SCSI adapters have both internal and external connecters so that same adapter card can be used to connect both the hard drives and the CDROM drives inside the computer. This capability is useful for network servers that utilize high end devices such as hard drive arrays ,optical jukeboxes and tape changers SCSI Standards

SCSI standards appears to have three revisions and are backward compatible

SCSI-1

The SCSI standards are published by ANSI and was published in 1986

Mass Storage Interfaces

SCSI-2 The SCSI 2 standard was published in 1994 and includes the following features
a)

b)

c)

d)

e)

Fast SCSI : A high speed transfer protocol that doubles the speed of the SCSI bus from 5 to 10 MHz providing 10MB/Sec transfer rate Wide SCSI : Doubles the width of SCSI bus to 16 bits and thereby double the data transfer speed to 10 MB/Sec when used with original 5 MHz and 20 MB/Sec when used in combination with Fast SCSI Command queuing : Enables the host adapter to send up to 256 commands to a SCSI device which stores them in its buffer and execute them all independently New Cables : The fast SCSI and Wide SCSI requires high density cables for high speed data transfer Additional Commands: Command set expanded to support additional device types which includes CD-ROM and other removable media drives

Mass Storage Interfaces

f) Active Termination : SCSI standard defines the use of active terminators on the bus g) Bus Parity :Parity verification is optional in SCSI-1 and is mandatory in SCSI-2 h) Terminator Power : In SCSI-2 host adapters provide the power that terminators need to perform their function

In SCSI-2 Backward compatibility is assured

SCSI-3 It is still not officially ratified as an ANSI standard The important development in SCSI-3 is the introduction of Ultra SCSI, a new synchronous data transfer scheme that increases the bus speed Ultra SCSI,Ultra-2 and Ultra-3 are the standards currently available in high-end hard drive market and it support transfer rates up to 160 MB/sec

Mass Storage Interfaces

SCSI-3(contd) SCSI-3 transfer modes are backward compatible Serial SCSI Serial SCSI is also known as FireWire

FireWire uses serial communication

FireWire Connections can run at 400 MHz or more

It needs bus width of size 1

Mass Storage Interfaces

SCSI Hardware SCSI hardware consists of a host adapter, some cables and the actual devices that need to connect to the bus The following are the factors that have to be considered while choosing SCSI hardware a) Performance level : SCSI devices should be selected to meet the current as well as future needs b) Connectors :Make sure that all the devices have proper connectors to support it c) Cables : Use proper cable for the device that is going to be used SCSI Host Adapter Host adapter is the brain of the SCSI bus The computer sends to the adapter all its request for access to the SCSI device

Mass Storage Interfaces

SCSI Host Adapter (contd)

The adapter translates the request to the appropriate SCSI commands and transmits them to the correct device The adapter then receives the responses to the commands from the devices and relays the result to the computers processor SCSI host adapters are plug into one of the computers bus slots like expansion cards Adapters range from low priced cards designed to connect a single device to a PC to high end units that support network server features like RAID The following are the criteria that should be considered when evaluating host adapter

Mass Storage Interfaces

SCSI Host Adapter (contd) a) PC Bus type :ISA cards can be used to connect SCSI to low speed devices. PCI bus and a card that connect it essential to connect SCSI to high speed devices like hard disk.While using ISA bus the data tranfer speed is limited to 8 Mbps where as PCI bus can support Ultra SCSI protocols that support high speeds b) Resource Utilization : SCSI host adapters require hardware resources like IRQ,I/O address ,Memory address ,DMA channels etc c) Bus Width: Host adapters are available with 8 bit narrow SCSI bus width to 16 bit wide SCSI versions depending on the width of the SCSI devices that are connected to it d) Bus speeds : Host adapters are available in all bus speeds from standard 5 MHz SCSI to fast SCSI to Ultra SCSI,ULTRA2 and ULTRA3 SCSI .Full function PCI adapters can support speeds up to ULTRA 2 SCSI with few support ULTRA 3

Mass Storage Interfaces

SCSI Host Adapter (contd) e) Signaling types :Signaling scheme now used commonly are single ended SCSI and LVD. Utra 2 and faster drives use LVD to achieve their high speeds f) Connector types : Some low end SCSI adapters support a single external device and so that they have only one external connector. A typical full featured adapter card have both internal and external connectors g) BIOS :SCSI adapters have their own BIOS built into the card so that system can boot from a SCSI hard drive h) Caching : Some host adapters contain on-board cache that temporarily stores data accessed from the devices connected to it i) Multiple Channels Dual channel SCSI adapter is available .This has two separate adapters on a single card that enables to run two independent SCSI buses

Mass Storage Interfaces

SCSI cables SCSI standard define three types of cables a) A Cable B Cable b) P Cable A Cable : Contains 50 wires Internal cables are standard ribbon cables with multiple IDE 50 pin female connectors External cables use either 50 pin Centronix connectors with wire gate latches or high density 50 pin D - Shell connectors with spring clip latches called HD50s A Cable is suited for narrow SCSI devices running at regular ,fast or Ultra speeds B Cable : 68 Pin cable designed to provide support for the wide , fast/wide and Ultra Wide SCSI buses. This cable was used in addition to the A cable and hence was dropped from the SCSI-3 standard
a)

Mass Storage Interfaces

SCSI Cables (contd) P cable P cable has 68 wires

It is a replacement for the B/A cable combination intended for wide SCSI variants.
External cables use a high density 68 pin male D- shell connector with thumbscrews called HD68 Internal cables use the same type of connector without additional shielding and thumbscrews For internal connections SCSI bus use a ribbon cable with multiple connectors on it Internal SCSI devices have one connector only so you must purchase a ribbon cable with a sufficient number of connectors to support all the internal devices in your system including host adapter

Mass Storage Interfaces

SCSI SCSI is expensive than IDE Along with the SCSI devices the user have to buy SCSI host adapter and cables

Performance of SCSI devices with respect to data transfer rate is higher than IDE SCSI devices are used in situations in which speed can make difference in areas like network data server SCSI intended to support a wide variety of devices in the initial design itself Each device on a SCSI bus can queue multiple commands and can execute them in the most efficient possible order

IDE IDE is not as expensive as SCSI Along with IDE devices the user not needed to buy adapter and cables The Performance of IDE devices with respect to data transfer rate is lesser than SCSI Not typically used in network servers IDE primarily focused on hard drives and then scaled to support different devices IDE is single threaded and can handle only one command at a time

Mass Storage Interfaces SCSI Versus IDE (Contd)

SCSI SCSI uses DMA or bus mastering relieving the processor from the burden of data transfer IDE In most systems IDE interface operates on PIO mode of transfer which make use of processors involvement in data transfer

Magnetic storage Devices

Magnetic storage Consists of Hard disks , floppy disks and tape drives, cartridge drives etc

Data storage is based on the principles of magnetism Storage medium consists of a moving surface coated with magnetic material capable of holding a magnetic charge

In the original state the magnetic particles in the storage medium has a magnetic charge that are disorganized ,the magnetic field point in random direction and are cancel each other To record data onto the medium , a recording head passes close to the surface

Magnetic storage Devices

Writing Data(contd) The head is a U shaped conductor that carries an electric charge which turns it into an electromagnet

When the electric charge from the head encounters the magnetic particles on the recording medium, it aligns them all in the same direction depending on the polarity of the charge running through the head When the particles of the medium are aligned , the individual magnetic fields produce a cumulative charge called flux
The drive is capable of changing the polarity of the charge running through the head very quickly and when it changes ,the direction of particle alignment also changes and thereby produce a flux transition or flux reversal The medium moves with respect to head creates a pattern of flux transitions using a code to represent one bit of data

Magnetic storage Devices

Writing Data (contd) The medium is divided into units called bit cells or transition cells each of which contains a flux transition that represents one bit of data

Once the particles in the medium are aligned in a particular pattern , they remain that way until the head applies another charge which make the magnetic medium a permanent storage solution

Reading Data The head passes over the surface of the medium while reading data

Head generates a voltage pulse when it passes over a flux transition. A transition from positive to negative charge registers a negative voltage and a negative to positive transition registers a positive voltage pulse The drives controller amplifies the pulses and decodes them to reproduce the original data

Magnetic storage Devices

Reading Data (contd) IBM developed a new type of read technology called magneto-resistive (M R) head.

MR head functions by measuring the non linear resistance change as a bias current passes through the head that is travelling over the surface of the disk

The drive circuitry monitors the current passing through the head, when the flux transitions cause increased resistance ,the voltage changes in the same pattern as when the data are written to the medium

Magnetic Encoding Schemes Magnetic storage device is an analog medium and hence a D/A converter is needed before the drive writes data

The drive performs this conversion using a device called an endec(encoder/decoder)

Magnetic storage Devices

Magnetic Encoding Schemes(contd) The endec encodes the data generated by the computer into the proper pattern for storage as flux transitions on the magnetic medium and also decodes the pulses generated during the read operation back to binary data

Timing plays a crucial part in encoding .If the timing is not correct the flux transitions may be interpreted wrongly To make sure that the timing is correct, encoding schemes used by magnetic storage devices include a timing signal and clock signal A timing signal is a special pattern of flux transitions that is placed between each series of transitions that represent a bit of data. The timing signal ensures that the head reads each bit of data separately even if several consecutive bits have the same value

Magnetic storage Devices

Magnetic Encoding Schemes (contd) MFM Encoding

It is a refined version of the original frequency modulation FM Encoding is also called single density encoding used in Floppy disk drives

MFM encoding is called double density encoding and it reduces the number of bit cells devoted to timing signals
MFM devices insert a clock transition only when writing two consecutive bits with a value 0 MFM devices can store twice the amount of data than FM devices

Magnetic storage Devices

Magnetic Encoding Schemes (contd) RLL Encoding ( Run Length Limited) It can store up to 50% more data than MFM in the same space and hence RLL encoding replaced MFM for hard drives

MFM encoding works with single bit at a time whereas RLL encoding encodes several data bits and their required timing signal at once Most hard drives used today make use of RLL 17

Hard Disk Drives It is a nonvolatile storage used in PCs

Hard drive is faster and holds more data than any other form of nonvolatile storage
It functions using the magnetic storage principles

Magnetic storage Devices

Hard Disk Drives (contd) Magnetic media in a hard drive consist of rigid platters made of aluminum alloy or a glass ceramic composite material

Platters are coated with magnetic material on both sides one on top of the other
The entire platter assembly is mounted on a central spindle that is connected to the drives motor which spins the platters at high speed The heads that read and write the data on the platters are mounted to an arm that moves inward and outward on the surface of the platters

There are separate heads for each platters surface all mounted to a single arm assembly that moves the heads across the surface of the platters in unison
The entire unit ,platters and heads is called a hard disk assembly

Magnetic storage Devices

Hard disk drives (contd) Cylinders ,Tracks and sectors All hard disks write data onto the platters in concentric circle called tracks

A typical Hard drive has 10,000 to 20,000 tracks on each platter surface Each platter surface is also split into pie shaped wedges. The part of the track within one of the wedges is called a sector. Each sector stores 512 bytes of data. The number of tracks and sectors is the same for each surface of each platter in a particular hard drive A cylinder consists of all the tracks in the same position on each platter surface. The number of cylinders is equal to the number of tracks on a single platter surface

Magnetic storage Devices

Cylinders, tracks and sectors (contd) Each sector is numbered beginning with the number 1 while the cylinders are numbered starting with 0

Each sector has an address area and data area. The address area identifies the sector, the cylinder in which the sector and the head used to access that sector
These three addresses are used by the drive to locate the data stored uniquely The address area contains CRC information used to validate the information stored The data area of the sector contains several bytes of timing signal information followed by the 512 bytes of actual data. Several bytes of error checking code are also included that are used to verify the contents of the data field. At the end of the data field is a gap that separates one sector from the next and provides a margin for error to accommodate slight variances in the speed in which the drive spins

Magnetic storage Devices

Cylinders , tracks and sectors contd Cylinder skewing : If the drive is writing data and fills an entire track a , it must then move to the next track to continue writing. But the time taken by the head to move from one track to the other prevents it from catching the first sector on the new track during the same rotation. Hence the drive must wait for the disk to rotate completely before it can write to the first sector in the new track. Drive addresses this problem by using cylinder skewing in which the first sector of each track is offset from that of the next track by one sector. When the drive is finished to writing to one complete track ,it can move the heads to the next track and then begin writing immediately at the first sector instead of waiting for the disk to rotate Zoned bit recording Usually outer tracks are much longer than the inner tracks resulting in a lot of storage space wasted. Zoned bit recording is a technique that varies the number of sectors on each track The The drive cylinders are split in zones(10 to 20 zones). Each of the track in a particular zone has the same number of sectors with the outer zone is having more sectors than inner zone which enables the drive to store more data on the outer tracks than on the inner ones. Each zone transfer data at different rates

Magnetic storage Devices

Cylinders , tracks and sectors (contd) Areal Density It is a measurement of the overall efficiency of a magnetic storage device Areal density is obtained by multiplying the number of bits stored in one inch length of a single track (bits per inch BPI) by the number of tracks in one inch length measured between the center of a platter and its outer edge (Tracks per inch TPI) and is measured in Bits Per Square Inch (BPSI) Hard drive components a)Platters :

Platters are the magnetic storage medium in the drive and is made of rigid materials like aluminum or glass Earlier PCs use large platters that were up to 14 or more inches in diameter. PC drive later use platters of 5.12 inches in diameter.most of the hard drives used today use 3.74 inch platters. Portable systems like laptop and notebooks use drives with smaller platters 2 inch to 1 inch platter

Magnetic storage Devices

Platters are constructed earlier using aluminum alloy but later it was replaced with ceramic and glass and it forms the structure of the platter called substrate

The actual magnetic medium is applied as a coating to the substrate

The technology used for applying the magnetic material to the substrate was to coat the platter with a viscous liquid containing magnetic iron oxide particles and the spin the platter on its spindle. The centrifugal force produced while the platter spins causes the excess liquid to fly off the platter leaving a thin coating of magnetic material. The disadvantage of the method was that the coating of magnetic material created by the process was too thick to support the increase in areal density. Drive manufacturers eventually used thin film media process which reduce thickness of the magnetic coating on the platters

Magnetic storage Devices

Thin film coating make use of electroplating and Sputtering Electroplating deposits molecules of magnetic cobalt alloy material onto the platter while it is immersed in a chemical bath