answersLogoWhite

0


Best Answer

Serial access means going through everything one by one, starting at the beginning, until you reach the item you want. Direct access means going straight to the item you want without having to go through other ones. If you wanted to print all the names in a database, using serial access would be fine because you are starting at the first and going right through to the end.

In terms of storage units, magnetic tape is a form of serial access, where a disk provides direct access. If you think of a cassette tape, you would have to fast forward or rewind to get to a piece of music you wanted. A CD enables you to go direct to what you want, without having to pass through anything else.

User Avatar

Wiki User

14y ago
This answer is:
User Avatar

Add your answer:

Earn +20 pts
Q: Difference between direct and serial access?
Write your answer...
Submit
Still have questions?
magnify glass
imp
Related questions

Serial and direct access?

direct access allows you to access the needed record directly with serial access u have to go through all the others before arriving to the desired one


What is the difference between direct access and sequential access?

, Both terms "direct access" and "sequential access" as you must have guessed refer to accessing schemes in the file system. In broadest sense difference between these two can be stated like this -In sequential access data is stored at random locations. -In direct access data is stored at sequential locations. ( Ironically this is true No matter what kind of first impression we get when we hear it for the first time. ) -In sequential access addition of data is fast but retrieval of data is slow. -In direct access addition of data is slow as reordering of data blocks may be needed to put current data block after the last used data block for the file. But retrieval of data is fast. -Data structure implementing Sequential access is linked list. -Data structure implementing Direct access is an Array. Application areas:- A situation where rate of addition of data is much larger compared to retrieval of data Sequential access is preferred, in opposite situation Direct access is more suitable. Regards, Prime There are technical explanations as to how it works, but in simple terms, direct access means going straight to the record you want, whereas sequential access means going through all records one by one until you find the one you want.


Are hard disks direct or serial access?

Direct. Data can be accessed directly without going through all the preceding data to find what is required. An example of serial access would be tape.


Do the floppies follow direct or serial access?

serial because it takes a lot of time to retrieve information


What are the analogies of Serial Access and Direct Access in our daily day life?

Serial Access: • In serial access the data is accessed from the beginning and the searched through the entire bits of data until the required information is found. • Example of serial access can be found in daily life: The old film reel where the movie starts at the beginning and data is read in order till the end. Direct Access: • In this method the computer can calculate, and the search the file, for the given information, and the computer directly goes to the given in formation. • Example of this access in daily life: Pen drive, it is easily accessed it can store DVD movies


What is difference between 25pin and 9pin serial port?

16


Difference between serial and parallel multiplier?

telidu nana...


The most important advantage of disk storage over tape storage?

disk storage-> direct data access storage tape storage -> serial data access storage


Differences among sequential access direct access?

Let's say you have a set of 100 pieces of data, which are all names. Now, if you want to find a specific name, "Kevin", you can find it in different ways. You could either go through each of the records one after another, or you could randomly generate a number, and check if that record is "Kevin", this is potentially faster than sequential access as "Kevin" could be the last record.


What is the difference between serial and series?

A Serial is a story with multiple chapters. A Series is a group or collection of independent stories with something in common.


What is the difference between a serial and a sata hard drive?

A serial hard drive is the same as a SATA hard drive. SATA is Serial ATA, and PATA is Parallel ATA.


Name three serial access secondary storage device?

Random Access memory