Xref: utzoo comp.periphs:1780 comp.ivideodisc:205
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!marque!lakesys!davek
From: davek@lakesys.UUCP (Dave Kraft)
Newsgroups: comp.periphs,comp.ivideodisc
Subject: Re: CD-ROM specs?
Summary: Hitachi Box
Keywords: CD-ROM
Message-ID: <641@lakesys.UUCP>
Date: 23 May 89 15:50:40 GMT
References: <324@frisbee.UUCP>
Organization: Lake Systems - Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Lines: 33

In article <324@frisbee.UUCP>, matt@frisbee.UUCP (Matt Taylor) writes:
> 
> 	Here's an easy one.
> 
> 	Does anyone have the performance specifications for the various 
> CD-ROM players used with IBM PC's?  I am particularly interested in the 
> Hitachi box as I might buy one for the databases available on the disks.  
> 
> How does the random access of data compare to a hard disk?  Obviously
> slower, but by how much?  Rotational latency?  Media lifetime?  MTBF?
> 
> These answers and many more will be summarized...

Matt,
At Datalink Information Systems (where I work), we've got a Hitachi CD-ROM
drive, and the response time is pretty good.. although it actually depends on
where on the disk the data is that you're looking for..  We have two CDs
that we purchased from Quanta Press (which seems about the only place _I_
know of that sells CD-ROMs).  One is called 'World Factbook 1988'.  You      
wouldn't beleive all the information that they've packed onto this CD..  
They even give addresses/telephone numbers of consolates!  Oh, this disk
was made up from unclassified CIA data.  Also, on this disk, it has TIFF
pictures of each country.  It's really neat! (I wish I had a decent TIFF viewr
though).  The other disc we've got has all of the seals available from the 
Government Printing Office.  These are in TIFF format also.
The one thing we'd like to do is write our own retrieval software for the
factbook '88 disc.  (see next message about this).  Hope this helps.
Dave
-- 
davek@lakesys.lakesys.com
uunet!marque!lakesys!davek
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