Secondary Storage

INFO ON BLU-RAY DISCS & FLASH DRIVES:

What is it?
Blu-ray Discs (BD) is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the standard DVD format. A Flash Drive is a small storage device that can be used to transport files from one computer to another. There are many different types of Flash Drives, such as USB flash drive or solid state drive.
What do we use it for?
Blu-ray Discs (BD) were established to hold a standard-length movie in HDTV format, or high-definition television.The movies are displayed in higher resolution and therefore they require much more storage space. Flash Drives are used for many different things. Because of its small size, many people find them very handy. They are mainly used for Personal data storage, maintenence, law enforcement, boot computers and business uses.
 
How is it a part of our multimedia world?
Blu-ray dics are a part of our multimedia world as they are able to encorporate many types of multimedia onto the discs. Flash drives are also a part of the multimedia world as they can store as much media onto it as possible.
 
Are there different types? Advantages/ Disadvantages?
There is only one type of Blu-ray discs. There are two main types of Flash drives, USB flash drives and Solid state drive. The most familiar one is the USB flash drives, this flash drive will let you plug the small drive directly into your computer and you will be able to access it as a drive on your computer. It will allow you to copy information to it as you need to. The Solid state drive is not as popular, and is used to store solid-state data that is persistant.



A "simple" explanation of how it works.
Blu-ray Discs store digitally encoded video and audio information in pits -- spiral grooves that run from the center of the disc to its edges. A laser reads the other side of these pits to play the movie or program that is stored on the DVD. A flash drive is easy to use. Once you have created a paper or other work, simply plug your flash drive into a USB port. The USB port will appear on the back of a desktop computer’s PC tower or on the side of a laptop. When you option to save your work by selecting “Save As,” you will find that your flash drive appears as an additional drive.
 
A rough indication of the cost of the device
A 25 gigabyte Blu-ray disc costs about $2.60 and a pack of 15 costs $40. The cost of flash drives range from under $10 to over $200 depending on the manufacturer and storage capacity.
 
Future directions, what is waiting around the corner, what is the next "new" technology in this area?
Since the Blu-Ray disc's launched in 2007, its acceptance as DVD media replacement has significantly increased. Blu-ray has had much support from consumers as well as movie studios and this has greatly contributed to its triumph over HD-DVD. The positives of Blu-ray had people believing, from an early stage, that it would be the future of high definition media. The USB flash drive, a relatively new invention that was first sold in 2001 as a humble 8Mb storage device. Their memory capacity continues to rise while their prices keep dropping. Today a 64 Gigabyte flash drive is not unheard of, and smaller drives can be bought for less than what a stack of blank CD's might cost. WEBSITES:



http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-blu-ray-discs.htm (3rd Sept)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray_Disc (3rd Sept)
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http://www.ehow.com/facts_5063449_flash-drives-used.html (3rd Sept)
http://ezinearticles.com/?What-is-a-Flash-Drive-Used-For?&id=1365498 (3rd Sept)
http://ezinearticles.com/?What-Are-the-Different-Types-of-Flash-Drives?&id=1365587 (5th Sept)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-state_drive (5th Sept)
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