Optical memory Compact Disk and Compact Disk read-only memory In 1982, CD was successfully introduced.

It is a non-erasable disc that can store more than 80 minutes of audio information. The common size for CD-ROM is 700 MB or to be exact is 703 MB + 34 MB of error correcting memory. The disc is formed from polycarbonate plastic. It stores computer data as a series of microscopic pits on the surface of a polycarbonate plastic using a 780nm wavelength semiconductor laser. The polycarbonate coated with highly reflective material such as aluminium to reflect to laser. Acrylic coating was added for protection and label printed on acrylic coating. Information is read by reflecting the laser on the bottom of the polycarbonate layer then the value is determined through the reflected laser intensity.

(Source: www.csc.sdstate.edu/~gamradtk/csc317/csc317l18.pdf ) CD-ROM Block Format

(Source: www.csc.sdstate.edu/~gamradtk/csc317/csc317l18.pdf ) Data on the CD-ROM are organized as a sequence of blocks. A typical block format is shown in figure above. It consists of the following fields: - Sync: The sync field identifies the beginning of a block. It consists of a byte of all 0s, 10 bytes of all 1s, and a byte of all 0s. - Header: block address and mode byte i. mode 0 blank data field ii. mode 1 Error-correcting code and 2048 bytes of data iii. mode 2 No error-correcting code and 2336 bytes of data - Data: user data - Auxiliary: Additional user data in mode 2 while in mode 1 is a 288-byte error-correcting code.

Compared with traditional magnetic disks, CD-ROM has two advantages which are the optical disc together with the information stored on it can be can be mass replicated inexpensively unlike a magnetic disk and the optical disk is removable, allowing the disk itself to be used for archival storage. CD-ROM also has its disadvantages which are its readonly and cannot be updated and it has an access time much longer than that of a magnetic disk drive, as much as half a second. The other optical disc products are CD Recordable (CD-R), CD Rewritable (CD-RW), Digital Versatile Disk (DVD), DVD Recordable (DVD-R), DVD Rewritable (DVD-RW) and Blu-ray DVD. CD Recordable (CD-R) CD-R is similar to a CD-ROM. The user can write to the disc only once. CD-R allows us to capture data or information which then can be read by CD-ROM drive. CD Rewritable (CD-RW) Similar to a CD-ROM. CD-RW has the obvious advantage over CD-ROM and CD-R that it can be rewritten multiple times.

Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) DVD is a disc-shaped optical storage medium that capable of storing up to 4.7 Gigabytes of data for each layer, with a size similar to compact disc drive. Both 8 and 12 cm diameters are used, with a double-sided capacity of up to 17 Gigabytes. The basic DVD is read-only (DVDROM). Blu-ray DVD High-definition video disk. Provides considerably greater data storage density than DVD, using a 405-nm (blue-violet) laser. A single layer on a single side can store up to 25-50 Gigabytes.