[net.rumor] Re - Re: New Half gegabyte ROM...CD vs LASER

phil@unisoft.UUCP (Phil Ronzone) (04/30/84)

>> Dave Ihnat seems to think that Compact audio disks (CD's) will
>> soon be no more. I would be absolutely amazed if this were to
>> happen. Why IBM alone could keep the techonology and the industry
>> that supports it alive (their recent order of 1.3 million CD players
>> supports my notion). Also - new players are being released all of
>> the time. Why, there is even going to be players made for cars in
>> the near future. Compact disks should be with us for some time.
>>					David P. Geller

Ahem - I believe Dave Ihnat used CD to mean the RCA developed
Capacitive Detection (CD) disk. RCA recently gave up on the
technology, and it will soon be no more. The decison of RCA
seemes to have been marketing (lack of standardization compared
to the audio Compact Disks (another CD)), but the contact of
the stylus with the record was 100+ year old technology
compared with the non-contact laser pickup. An RCA engineer
was quoted as being unable to understand the consumers objection,
since wear wasn't detectable until almost 1000 playings.
I wonder if this was the same engineer that approved the
construction in 1965 of a 300 million dollar brand new
highly automated VACUMN TUBE plant for RCA (sold in 2 years
for 25 million)?