Direct access storage device
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A direct access storage device-, or DASD (IPA [ˈdæzdi]) is a form of magnetic disk historically used in the mainframe and minicomputer (mid-range) environments. A redundant array of independent disks (RAID) is a form of DASD.
"Direct access" means that all data can be accessed directly — in a form of indexing also known as "random access" — as opposed to storage systems based on seeking sequentially through the data (e.g., tape drives).
DASD is a means of storing data to several hard drives on one computer system where a piece of information may be stored on more than one hard drive.
[edit] See also
 |
This computer storage-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
IBM originated the acronym "DASD" to cover 3 different direct access storage devices. These included disk drives, drums and data cells. Both drums and data cells have disappeared as products but the acronym remains to describe IBM disk drives.
