Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!rutgers!cmcl2!husc6!xait!mirror!frog!john
From: john@frog.UUCP (John Woods)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: NeXT press release (magneto-optical disks)
Summary: Magneto-optical disks
Message-ID: <1220@X.UUCP>
Date: 16 Oct 88 01:52:00 GMT
References: <5423@juniper.uucp> <72886@sun.uucp> <363@elan.UUCP>
Organization: Servants of the Great White Frog
Lines: 19

In article <363@elan.UUCP>, jlo@elan.UUCP (Jeff Lo) writes:
> The Wall Street Journal today said it is a magneto-optical disk, so
> perhaps it is a hybrid of both technologies [WORM + Winchester]
> on a single medium.
> 
No; magneto-optical disks are a brand new* effect.  Basically, the heat of
the write laser is used to alter the magnetization of the spot on the disk;
this changes the optical properties of that spot (the polarization, I believe)
and thus changes what the read laser will see.

[*Well, I suppose this effect was inherent in the way the physical laws sorted
themselves out as the Big Bang cooled, but you know what I mean :-].
-- 
John Woods, Charles River Data Systems, Framingham MA, (617) 626-1101
...!decvax!frog!john, john@frog.UUCP, ...!mit-eddie!jfw, jfw@eddie.mit.edu

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