tim@nmtvax.UUCP (04/24/84)
<Void where prohibited>
Well, this weeks issue of Electronics (April 19th) has a interesting article
in it on the idea of using CD digital laser disks a very high density ROMs.
They claim that a single CD would have the storage space of half a gegabyte!
But until now manufacturing such disks has been expensive. Not anymore. A
company (see article) has announced it has a way of stamping CDs like records
at a very fast rate. They claim that in volume they could produce CDs for
less than the cost of a good floopy diskette. This doesn't count a original
$2500 master charge. Compare that to the method of copying software to
floppies at the slow rates that must be used.
As for cost and speed, lets see. Audio samples at around 44khz with about
16bits per and two channels (stereo) that comes out to about 176k bytes a
second or 1.408megabits a second. Not as fast as a hard disk, but what
4in hard disk has that kind of storage? Cost, well a CD player can be found
for about $600 these days. Remember that a player for stereo has lots of
extra circuitry for conversion to audio that wouldn't be needed for a computer
interface. Lets say about $500 including a controller. Not bad!
Now who would use such a thing? Well, rumor has it that IBM (yes big blue!)
has just purchased over 1.3million of the things. Rumor has it that they may
soon unvail a new high density storage system for there computers that will
include a CD(s?) with lots of software on it! The reason for this is that IBM
wants to blow the competition out of space and time itself. Just imagine what
a inexpensive CD with half a meg of software on it would be like if it were
inexpensive....why the entire UNIX operating system including sources and
all the extras anyone would want would fit with space to spare. Why? Just
remember that AT&T has just recently declared war on the market place with
its own dreams of creaming the competition. IBM might lose in software
costs, but in the long run who would be the loser?
Well net landers, what do you think? Can anyone out there imagine writing
a software package to be sold on such a thing (i mean half a gegabyte is big!).
And remember to that a CD will never wear out. No contact with the playing
surface. It may only be readable, but with all that stuff just sitting at
your computers fingers tips.....
Tim Tucker
...ucbvax!unmvax!nmtvax!tim
P.S. Please, no replys of software piracy or theft of CDs. Gag me...
P.P.S Remember, you heard it hear first.upstill@ucbvax.UUCP (Steve Upstill) (04/26/84)
Well, yes, but if you think that the big news is "putting all of UNIX on one cheap device", you're missing the boat. The REAL significance of 1/2GB ROM is for what you might call "vast-storage". Think of it: the database for an entire profession could be stored on a single $500 device, updatable weekly or monthly. For example, an auto-parts store would no longer need a five-foot rack of parts catalogs, but could get all its information, intelligently indexed, instantly (or secondly, anyway). I would expect Apple to be delighted at the prospect of their N-million "knowledge workers" having such easy access to so much information. Face it: we are looking at the start of a whole new sub-industry. I predict billions in two years. Steve Upstill
shebs@utah-cs.UUCP (Stanley Shebs) (04/26/84)
Lord preserve us from half a gigabyte of IBM software.
stan shebs
utah-cs!shebs