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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!akgua!mcnc!decvax!ittvax!bunker!max
From: max@bunker.UUCP (Max Hyre)
Newsgroups: net.micro
Subject: Re: 500Mbyte ROMS and more... - (nf)
Message-ID: <411@bunker.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 25-May-84 15:38:12 EDT
Article-I.D.: bunker.411
Posted: Fri May 25 15:38:12 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 1-Jun-84 03:23:33 EDT
References: umn-cs.462
Lines: 29

[ Can we store all these lines in a WOM somewhere? ]

     I'm surprised no one has mentioned an idea I read somewhere a couple
of years ago.  Remember, we're talking about write-once memory here.
     What you do is put 400M of whatever on your 500M CD and leave the
rest blank.  You have cunningly built write capability into the drive,
and when a bug comes up, you've got 100M of space to fix it in.  Unless
you write obscenely buggy software, 25% should be sufficient to put
corrections in.  This also allows the user to put his home movies,
favorite TV shows ( fair use only :-) ), whatever, on it.  Just send
an update floppy to the user and the system will take care of the
rest.
     The article I read (source forgotten) also pointed out how useful
this short of thing is for audit trails and such.  Every time you update
a record in the database, you just rewrite it, and mark the previous
version of that record as expired.
     All this leads up to:  Just what sort of equipment is needed to
*write* a laser disk, and what are the chances it can be packaged
suitably for home consumption?

     "Give me ROM, lots of ROM, ... don't fence me in!"

     Max Hyre
     (Somewhere in the vicinity of decvax!ittvax!bunker!max)

P. S.:  Make that "this *sort* of thing" in paragraph 3.
P. P. S.:  Anyone else remember trying to figure EPROM patches which
     differed from the existing code only in having certain 1s flipped
     to 0s so you didn't have to erase & burn the whole thing over?