A marine research agency is deploying autonomous underwater gliders to record deep-ocean seismic activity. The internal logging device must withstand significant physical acceleration, operate at temperatures near 0∘C0^\circ\text{C}0∘C, consume minimal electrical power, and write continuous telemetry data rapidly.
Identify the category of secondary storage media most suitable for this application and the correct physical mechanism used to retain data when powered down.
Optical storage, which uses a laser to detect and alter the reflectivity of a spinning disk's surface.
Magnetic storage, which uses electromagnetic heads to magnetise microscopic sectors on spinning platters.
Solid-state storage, which uses floating-gate transistors to trap and store electrical charge.
Virtual storage, which utilizes a portion of volatile main memory (RAM) to simulate physical block storage.
76 exam-style questions on Edexcel GCSE Computer Science Hardware, covering Von Neumann architecture and FDE cycle, Secondary storage devices, and Embedded systems. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.