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Direct access refers to the ability to retrieve data from any point in a storage device directly, without having to sequentially access preceding data. This is common in random access memory (RAM) and solid-state drives (SSDs). Serial access, on the other hand, requires data to be accessed sequentially in the order it was stored, such as in magnetic tape drives. This difference impacts the speed and efficiency of data retrieval in storage systems.

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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.

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Wiki User

15y ago
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Q: Difference between direct and serial access?
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