Optical storage

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
(Redirected from
History of optical storage media
)
"Optical data storage" redirects here. For three-dimensionalgb optical data storage, see 3D optical data storage.

Writable optical data carriers
Computer memory and Computer data storage types
General
Volatile
RAM
Historical
Non-volatile
ROM
NVRAM
Early-stage NVRAM
Analog recording
Optical
In development
Historical

Optical storage refers to a class of

Britannica notes that it "uses low-power laser beams to record and retrieve digital (binary) data."[2][3]

Overview

Optical storage is the

hard disks, or semiconductors, such as flash memory
.

Optical storage in the form of discs grants the ability to record onto a compact disc in real time. Compact discs held many advantages over

audio tape players, such as higher sound quality and the ability to play back digital sound.[4] Optical storage also gained importance for its green qualities and its efficiency with high energies.[5]

Optical storage can range from a single drive reading a single CD-ROM to multiple drives reading multiple discs such as an

compact discs) can hold around 700 MB (megabytes) and optical jukeboxes can hold much more. Single-layer DVDs can hold 4.7 GB, while dual-layered can hold 8.5 GB. This can be doubled to 9.4 GB and 17 GB by making the DVDs double-sided, with readable surfaces on both sides of the disc. HD DVDs were able to store 15 GB with a single-layer and 30 GB with a dual-layer. Blu-ray discs, which won the HDTV optical format war
by defeating HD DVDs, can hold 25 GB for single-layer, 50 GB for dual-layer and up to 128 GB for quad-layer discs. Optical storage includes CDs and DVDs.

History

IBM was a leader in the development of optical storage systems for much of the early history of computing. In 1959, they installed the

Foto-Mem FM 390
.

Various forms of optical media, mostly disk form, competed with

storage density and cost terms. Prices fell to the point that they could be used in consumer products, leading to the 1978 introduction of the analog LaserDisc format. This was followed in August 1982 by the introduction of the digital audio audio/music CD,[8] which soon led to an effort to standardize data recording on this media. This was introduced in 1985 as the "Yellow Book", which became known as CD-ROM.[9]

In 1983,

IBM PC were common for a time,[10] but nothing ever came of this. Canon introduced a version packaged in a jacket similar to those used for the 3.5-inch floppy disk. Introduced in 1985, it found no major uses until 1988 when it was the centrepiece of the NeXT Computer.[11] Variations on this design were introduced through the 1990s but it never became very popular outside of Japan, although Sony's MiniDisc format saw some success.[12]

In 1988, the "Orange Book" added a write-once format, CD-WO, to the existing CD format. The media was compatible with existing CD drives, allowing music and data to be recorded and then read in any existing drive. Over time, this became known as

CD-MO, which differed from earlier MO systems primarily in that the disk was not enclosed in a jacket. This format saw little use. Continual improvements in drive and media led to the 1997 addition of the CD-RW
format, which allowed disks to be written, erased and re-written. This format is incompatible with older CD drives, like CD-R, but read-only drives capable of reading CD-RW became common in the 2000s as CD-RW use proliferated.

Optical media took another large step with the 1996 introduction of DVD, which was to video what the CD was to music. Originally to be known as "digital video disc", the name changed before release to be "digital versatile disc" to indicate that it was also useful for computer storage.

DVD-RW, was introduced in 1999, but like earlier CDs it could not be read by "normal" DVD drives. Over time, improvements led to most newer DVD drives being able to read any of these media.[15]

Another technical improvement during this era was the introduction of higher-frequency semiconductor lasers operating in the blue and near ultraviolet spectrum. These shorter wavelengths, combined with improvements in the underlying media, allowed much more data to be stored on a disk. With the widespread introduction of

streaming services. Blu-ray remains preferred to streaming services for its technical qualities, but has a tiny market share as of 2023.[17]

As of 2023[update], Blu-ray is the last major optical format to reach widespread use. The ever-increasing speed of

broadband internet has replaced many of its roles as a distribution medium for media and video games, and the rapidly falling prices of Flash memory
through the 2010s did the same in its archival role with read-write formats. A number of new technologies have been proposed as the basis for a new optical standard, but have not seen widespread use. These include:

The Optical Storage Technology Association (OSTA) was an international trade association formed to promote the use of recordable optical data storage technologies and products.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Optical storage". IBM.
  2. britannica
    .com.
  3. ^ "What is optical storage?". optical media, such as compact discs (CDs) and DVDs.
  4. ^ [1], "Optical storage device", issued 1998-07-08 
  5. ISSN 2047-7538
    .
  6. ISBN 90-272-4586-X
    .
  7. ^ Kuehler, J. D.; Kerby, H. Ray (1966). A photo-digital mass storage system. Proceedings of the November 7–10, 1966, fall joint computer conference. American Federation of Information Processing Societies. pp. 735–742.
  8. ^ Benj Edwards (October 1, 2012). "The CD player turns 30". PCWorld. Retrieved November 9, 2016. On October 1, 1982, Sony ignited a digital audio revolution with the release of the world's first commercial compact disc player, the CDP-101 (above), in Japan.
  9. ^ a b "From disk to data: how CD-R immortalizes your data in plastic". InfoWorld. Vol. 16, no. 23. June 6, 1994. p. 88. Retrieved March 25, 2020.
  10. ^ Erik Sandberg-Diment (March 31, 1985). "Is optical memory next from I. B. M.?". The New York Times.
  11. ^ Thompson, Tom; Baran, Nick (November 1988). "The NeXT Computer". Byte. p. 158.
  12. ^ "The story of the MiniDisc". Open Culture. June 23, 2021.
  13. Pcmag. Archived from the original
    on March 15, 2012.
  14. ^ "History of Pioneer Corporation". Pioneer Corporation. Archived from the original on July 15, 2017. Retrieved December 6, 2019.
  15. ^ "Notice to the DVD-RW Book Subscribers" (2004-02-25). www.dvdforum.org. Retrieved July 27, 2020. Important Notice to the subscribers of the DVD-RW Format Specifications Book Ver.1.2
  16. ^ Evan Ramstad (April 8, 1998). "In HDTV Age, Successor to VCR Still Seems to Be a Long Way Off". online.wsj.com. Retrieved October 18, 2007.
  17. ^ Williams, Mike (February 9, 2022). "6 Reasons Physical Media Beats Streaming". PC Magazine. Retrieved June 30, 2023.
  18. ^ Kleiner, Kurt (May 17, 2006). "Ultraviolet LED may boost disc capacity". New Scientist. Retrieved April 18, 2022.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Optical_storage&oldid=1219454150#History"