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From: jcb@frisbee.Sun.COM (Jim Becker)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Multimedia
Message-ID: <135136@sun.Eng.Sun.COM>
Date: 2 May 90 22:30:51 GMT
References: <17644@snow-white.udel.EDU> <24445@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> <984@tmiuv0.uucp> <17539@well.sf.ca.us>
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farren@well.sf.ca.us (Mike Farren) writes:

   rick@tmiuv0.uucp writes:

   >Ah! But you can save to CD-ROM.  The technology is called WORM (Write Once,
   >Read Many).  The gist of this is that you can write to the media ONCE, after
   >that it's CD-ROM.  Some WORM technologies do _not_ produce the same product
   >as a standard CD-ROM, but some do.

   None do.  Period.  A standard CD-ROM is a device  which  relies  on
   the mechanical properties of the disk (the pits in  the  reflective
   surface) for its data encoding.  You  CANNOT  make  a  standard  CD
   non-mechanically.   You  may never be able to - and you absolutely,
   certainly cannot do so now.

Hmmm..   don't  know  if  this  counts  but  there are people that are
pressing CDs out of mylar and a standard hand press. The  guy  that  I
saw  do  this  runs SOCS Research somewhere around here in the valley.
Kind of like pressing grapes.. :-)

There are of course other techniques that are being tried  to  produce
the same effect, albeit most not with vanilla CD audio compatability. 

Radio Shack has announced a mega-player that  addresses  a  number  of
different forms of Optical use, and can hook up  to  computer,  stereo
and TV from what I've heard.

There  is  also  a  drive that was announced by a Japanese firm over a
year ago to directly write CDs using a gold-based substrate, it was to
be marketted to the professional  audio  studio  audience  for  around
$8.50 a disk.

The  problem with selling writable CDs and hardware isn't neccessarily
mainly  technical, but more political. It is DAT tapes all over again,
with  the  advantage  of  a  standard  form-factor  that is enjoyed by
millions nationwide. 

   WORM drives that are currently available use a variety of techniques for
   data encoding, but CD-ROMs they are not.
   -- 
   Mike Farren 				     farren@well.sf.ca.us

I'm sure there are more examples, but I dropped out of Multimedia when
I dropped out of the Amiga, couple of years ago.

-Jim Becker



--    
	 Jim Becker / jcb%frisbee@sun.com  / Sun Microsystems