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From: hodas@saul.cis.upenn.edu (Josh Hodas)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc,comp.sys.mac.hardware,comp.sys.mac.programmer,rec.audio
Subject: Re: DAT backup for MAC?
Message-ID: <37800@netnews.upenn.edu>
Date: 18 Feb 91 16:27:33 GMT
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Reply-To: hodas@saul.cis.upenn.edu (Josh Hodas)
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In article <27BDB6B4.17437@orion.oac.uci.edu> bdugan@teri.bio.uci.edu (Bill Dugan) writes:
>
>I have always wondered why CD-ROM drives are so expensive when compared to
>the consumer audio CD players.  CD-ROM drives use the same mechanism, don;t
>need D/A converters, and all they really need is a SCSI card on-board.
>Am I spouting mixed-up untruth, or should CD-ROM drives cost $200?
>
>bill

Well, I don't think they are the same mechanism in general.  Consider,
how long does it take your CD player to seek from the beginning of a disc
to the end.  Most take at least a couple of seconds.  

Such a mechanism would be unacceptable for use with a CD-ROM where
you want much higher access times.

Now, there is one drive out, the portable from NEC, I forget its
model number, which is low priced, and seems to use a traditional mechanism.
It's average access time, however, is something like 1500ms, as compared
to about 350ms for higher-end CD-ROM drives, like the Toshiba.


Josh

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