ITPEC FE Subject A October 2025 Question 9

Source exam: ITPEC FE Subject A October 2025Topic: Computer Systems & Hardware

ITPEC FE Subject A October 2025 — Question 9 of 60

HDD Average Access Time — calculate total access time from seek, rotation, overhead, and transfer.

Given HDD specs: seek time 5 ms, rotation 6000 RPM, transfer rate 1 MB/s, controller overhead 0.1 ms, data size 16 kB.

Formula: Access time = Seek + Controller overhead + Rotational latency + Transfer time

  • Seek time = 5 ms (given)
  • Controller overhead = 0.1 ms (given)
  • Rotational latency = half rotation = (60 / 6000) / 2 = 5 ms
  • Transfer time = 16 kB / 1024 kB/s = 15.625 ms

Total = 5 + 0.1 + 5 + 15.625 = `25.725 ms`

Why not others:
- (a) 20.1 — incorrect transfer time calculation

- (c) 30.725 — used full rotation (10 ms) instead of half

- (d) 74.1 — completely wrong calculation

Key rules:
- Average rotational latency = half of one full rotation

- Full rotation time = 60 / RPM (in seconds)

- Convert units carefully: 1 MB = 1024 kB

AI-generated — may contain errors

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