Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!goofy.apple.com!esmith From: esmith@goofy.apple.com (Eric Smith) Newsgroups: comp.arch Subject: Re: CD-ROM documents (was Paperless Office) Message-ID: Date: 4 Dec 90 02:37:59 GMT References: <11191@pt.cs.cmu.edu> <00940487.15804140@KING.ENG.UMD.EDU> <28083@mimsy.umd.edu> <1990Nov29.162726.11411@mozart.amd.com> <11212@charm.UUCP> <2974@crdos1.crd.ge.COM> <1990Dec3.220850.18352@watdragon.waterloo.edu> Sender: usenet@Apple.COM Organization: Frobozz Magic Widget Company Lines: 17 In-reply-to: tbray@watsol.waterloo.edu's message of 3 Dec 90 22:08:50 GMT In article <1990Dec3.220850.18352@watdragon.waterloo.edu> tbray@watsol.waterloo.edu (Tim Bray) writes: > ... Should just point out one important architectural issue: CDROMs have > a seek time of on the order of 500 ms - that's right, half a second. The seek time depends mostly on the drive, not the media. There are already drives much faster than that. Heck, my CD-Audio player seeks faster than that. > It is unlikely that the access time issue will improve. This is definitely not true. There is no inherent reason why CD-ROM drives can't be made to seek as rapidly as any other current optical disks. -- Eric L. Smith Opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those esmith@apple.com of my employer, friends, family, computer, or even me! :-) Brought to you by Super Global Mega Corp .com