Unit 30 – M1 Comparing limitations of hardware and software

	CD-ROM	Comparison	USB flash drive
Capacity	A CD-ROM stores 700MB’s of data, so is limited to how much it can store.  CD-ROM’s can store films, photos, audio files and other files. CD’s can hold up to 12 or 13 songs, one movie up to 2 hours for the best quality, but up to 4 hours for lower quality. Some CD’s can be over ridden, so the existing content can be replaced with new content and the amount of storage space being used wouldn’t change as the new files would delete the original files and the new files would use the storage the original files were using.	A CD-Rom has a smaller storage than USB flash drives do apart from the smallest USB flash drive storage. The bigger the storage of the device, the more expensive it will be and the more files it is able to store. CD’s can store movies, photos and audio files whilst USB flash drives can store any file that is saved off of the computer. A CD’s information can be distorted by dust or marks on the disk whilst USB flash drives files can be distorted by dust, but a CD is harder to clean safely than a USB flash drives.	A USB flash drive can store as little as 512MB’s of data or it can store as much as 120GB’s of data. The more memory the USB flash drive has, the more expensive it will be, so a 512MB flash drive would be relatively cheap whilst a 120GB would be over £100. The physical size of the USB flash drive isn’t affected by how much memory the USB flash drive has. The smaller the USB flash drive’s memory is the number of files able to be stored on it is lower than a flash drive with a lot of memory.
Size (physical size)	A CD-ROM isn’t small enough to fit in a person’s pocket and is easy to break, so needs a holder to protect the disc. The more CD-ROM’s a person has the amount of storage space for the CD-ROM’s increases dramatically. Also, with a bigger surface, it is easier to scratch, which results in the CD-ROM no longer working or not working properly at certain times as the CD-ROM is being read. CD-ROM’s can be 120mm or 80mm and some readers won’t be able to read both sizes as it only being compatible with one size or it isn’t big enough.	Both a CD-ROM and a USB flash drive aren’t sized to the best that they could, on one hand a USB Flash drive is easier to lose and a CD-ROM is more likely to get damaged if it isn’t stored correctly. Then a USB flash drive is more likely to be left in clothes pockets and likely to go into the washing machine which can break the USB Flash drive in some cases.  All in all, neither the CD-ROM nor the USB Flash drives are the best sized storage devices out of the computer and they could both be improved.	A USB flash drive is small enough to fit into a person’s pocket, but it is easy to lose or leave in a USB drive of a computer. Flash drives are normally the same size or roughly the same size, but in some cases, the flash drive can be bigger or small. If the flash drive is smaller, it is easier to lose or leave in a computer, but a bigger one is more of a hassle to take around with the user. Even though the USB flash drive is a small storage device, it can have a large memory.
Speed	There are different speeds of CD-ROM’s. The slowest speed of a CD-ROM is 1x which takes around 70 minutes to read, then 2x reads the file at 35 minutes and the speeds increase up to 52x and the most common speed is 48x which should in theory read the disk in under a minute and a half. A speed of 1x will spin the disk 500 rpm, 48x has a 24,000 rpm and little things like dust will slow down the reading of the disk and the CD-ROM will re-read the disk until it understands the data on the disk.	Both the CD-ROM and a USB flash drive depend on the system’s memory, but they also depend on how much data is on the disk or USB flash drive. If there is more data stored, there is more data to be read and, so the data transferred from the CD-ROM or the USB flash drive to the computer. Most USB flash drives run at the same speed where as the CD-ROM is able to run at different speeds and each time the number increases, the less time the CD-ROM in theory is meant to be able to read the data.	The speed of a USB flash drive can depend on the speed of the computer. The faster the computer’s memory system is, the faster the transfer of files is between the USB flash drive and the computer. File transfers can take a few seconds to a few hours, depending on the computer’s memory speed. It can also depend on how much storage is left on the USB flash drive as if there is a lot of data on it, then there may be a lot of data to search for and transfer between the USB flash drive and the computer.

 

	Vector Software (Fireworks)	Comparison	Raster Software (Paint)
Stretching images	A vector image is created by co-ordinates and paths that create a smooth edged image, even when the image is shrunk or stretched. This is because the software the image gets the computer to do any calculations when the user changes a part of the image, so that the image is the exact same, but on a larger or smaller scale. There is one colour inside a complete set of coordinates and path ways, and there aren’t any pixels to expand, so the vector image hasn’t got any pixels to stretch and thus making the image look jagged or rough.	Where the raster image is made up of many pixels, giving the image a jagged edge and uses many different tones in the images, a vector image is made up of coordinates, pathways, which are both, calculated on the computer if changed, as well as coloured shapes with a smooth edge. A vector image can have very few tones or colours in the whole image overall due to the lack of pixels. If a company needed an graphic image for an advert, a vector image would be best as it would be the same quality if the image was enlarged.	In paint, each pixel needs its own colour to form the image and in some paint images, each pixel has a different colour, and it is possible to make the image file a lot bigger. Stretching an image will make lower the quality of the image more noticeable as the edges are jagged from the individual pixels being more noticeable. When a raster image is enlarged, the coloured pixels appear to be square and the pixels different shades or colours are visible. Raster images shouldn’t be enlarged due to the low quality it produces, but it’s possible to do so.
File Size	Since there are no pixels in a vector image, the final image file is smaller as there is less information to know and store. The files aren’t tiny, but they are usually a lot smaller than a raster image file. With a smaller file size, more vector images can be saved to a computer, whether it’s different versions of the same image or different vector images all together. A smaller image file is better as the computer’s memory won’t be taken up so quickly and the computer should stay working at a faster speed for a longer period of time.	Since the vector image isn’t made up of pixels, like a raster image is, it is better for storing the file as there is less information needed to be saved. Therefore, a vector image is better on keeping the memory lower n the used computer with more files than a raster image is. Vector images just need the information about coordinates, pathways, colours and any other features used where as raster images needs information on every individual pixel and generally, pictures that are edited aren’t a few pixels big, but at least a few hundred if not more than that.	Due to a raster image needing to store information about every pixel on the image, the file size is normally large. The file needs information on the many colours including the different shades of the colours, the position of the colours. Raster images will always create a large file size and the way to reduce the file size is to have fewer pixels and less information overall even though it won’t affect the size file very much. If a person is going to be saving and editing multiple raster images, they would need a big memory to store each image.
Colour depth	Adobe illustrator is a vector imaging editor where it has a 16-bit or a 32-bit colour depth so there are either over 65500 colours or over 16,500,000 colours and transparency to use whilst editing the vector image. Even though there is a large range of colours, normally there is not a lot of colours are used on the images created as vector images are used for flyers and posters which shouldn’t be overloaded with different colours. Even with the range of colours available, and the colours used on the vector images the file sizes shouldn’t be affected very much.	Vector image editing programs either have a large range of colours to choose from or a low range of colours to choose from depending on the Vector image editing software used. Raster image editing programs can also have a wide range of colours or a small range of colours, again depending on the raster editing program. The highest colour depth is 32-bit which supports transparency and over 16,500,000 colours then the lowest is 1-bit which only supports black.	Depending on the editing program of a raster image, the image can have up to 16 million different colours in use. If an image is being edited or created this would allow the creator or editor is skilled enough, the image can look as if it was a photograph or that the original file had no faults to it. The number of colours used and how many pixels the colours use would add more data to be saved for the images overall file, so even though there is a wide range of colours, it’s not always best to use a lot.