Summary

Take a look at the very exciting days ahead, with updates on our AIxBusiness program hosting 120+ students, our new AP Computer Science notes series, an article on digital storage and our first ever E-book launching soon!

Technical Article

Every now and then, our ever so precious electronics tend to run out of storage after years of usage. While our first impression at the face of low device storage is anxiety and frustration, I’m certain at some point, we’ve all wondered, what exactly does my device mean by “ it has no more storage”?

Though it is easy to imagine that data must be stored in a vault that never runs out, because we never see it physically, that is actually untrue.

So what exactly is storage? While the data we see on our electronic devices are virtual, physically untouchable, in the background it is stored in physical media. Every device has a physical storage “drive” where the information is held. Whether it is held permanently or for a short time is a different matter. While to us how data appears on the screen in many forms, to electronic devices it is simply either 1 or 0.

Here are some common storage techniques which almost every device, including the one I’m currently typing this article on, uses.

Floating gate transistors (flash drives, solid state drives)

There is a tiny isolated chamber, surrounded by insulation which allows it to hold electrons inside, without relying on the device’s power. This chamber is called a floating gate and when electrons are trapped here it is read as 0, when the chamber is empty it is read as 1.

Magnetic disk (Hard disk drives)

A read/write mechanical arm sits just some nanometers above a magnetic disk, the disc data stored as magnetic patterns. The arm uses an electromagnet to flip the direction of magnetic microscopic spots on the disk.

Capacitors (RAM)

For short term storage, small, high speed rechargeable batteries are used. A charged capacitor represents 1, an empty capacitor represents 0. Unlike the rest, they rely on power as they need electricity to continue charging the capacitors, so once power shuts down the information is lost unless permanently saved elsewhere.

Of course, the whole process is still very hard to comprehend in one picture. In reality, this whole thing is a chain of billions of switches following formulas that help them identify our data in their own computer language. In the end, it always comes down to a 1 or 0 for electronic devices.

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