Question

Which of the following is a sequential access memory?
1. CD
2. Hard disk
3. Magnetic tape
4. RAM
5.

Answer 1

Correct Answer - Option 3 : Magnetic tape

The correct answer is Magnetic tape.

• Magnetic tape is a secondary storage device used for storing files of data.
  • Example: a company’s payroll record
• Access is sequential and consists of records that can be accessed one after another as the tape moves along a stationary read-write mechanism.
• Sequential access is a term describing a group of elements (such as data in a memory array or a disk file or on magnetic tape data storage) being accessed in a predetermined, ordered sequence.

• A hard disk is an electromechanical data storage device from which data is accessed in a random-access manner, individual blocks of data can be stored or retrieved in any order
  • Both sequential and random access of data is possible in a hard disk
• In random-access memory (RAM) the memory cells can be accessed for information transfer from any desired random location
  • That is, the process of locating a word in memory is the same and requires an equal amount of time no matter where the cells are located physically in memory; Hence RAM is random access.
• A compact disc is a portable storage medium that can be used to record, store and play back audio, video and other data in digital form.