OPTICAL DRIVES

The ABC of Optical Drives

A computer’s CD-ROM and DVD drives use small, interchangeable, plastic-encased

discs from which data is retrieved using a infrared/laser beam, much like compact music discs.
Computer CD-ROMs and DVDs store vast amounts of information just like a Music CD; this is
achieved by using light to record data in a form that’s more tightly packed than the relatively
clumsy magnetic read/write heads that a conventional drive must manage. Like Music CD
players computer CD-ROM drives also come in jukebox configurations, which automatically
changes among 6 to 100 CDs as requested.

A CD-ROM drive or a DVD drive installed in a PC is nearly devoid of buttons and LCD
readouts, except for a button to load and unload discs and a light to signal when the drive is
reading a disc. The drive is controlled by a software in the PC, which sends instructions to
controller circuitry that’s either a part of the computer’s mother-board, or on a separate board
installed in an expansion slot. The software and circuitry in unison manipulate high-tech
components that make conventional drives seem crude in comparison. The most common CD-
ROMs and DVDs are read-only. The PC can’t write data or files to these discs, information
previously stamped on the CDs can only be retrived. This is an exception in case of writers.

The Perfect Medium

The huge capacity and read-only nature of most CD-ROMs makes the discs the perfect
medium for storing reams of data that doesn’t need updating, and for distributing large programs.
One can easily find CD-ROMs filled with clip art, photographs, encyclopedias, the complete
works of Shakespeare, and entire bookshelves of reference material. Finding similar material on
DVDs is a tougher job. Although one DVD can hold the equivalent of 13 CDs, with a few
exceptions containing computer software, most DVDs carry hit movies to which extra scenes,
subtitles and dubbing has been added.

The Writing Business

DVD has not yet become a standard PC component as CD-ROM drives have been for a
few years. But both are perfect for multimedia systems using video and sound files that need
voluminous storage space. Lately, CD and DVD drives have been getting into the writing
business. The price has been falling for CD-R (CD-Recordable) drives that can write data to a
special type of compact disc. There is, however, a catch: Portions of a writeable CD that has
been written to the disc in an earlier session is possible, but data already present can’t be deleted
or changed. Drives for rewriteable CD-ROMs (CD-RW), which overcome the immutability of
CD-R, and rewriteable DVDs are quickly dropping in price. One or the other may, in the future,
replace floppy drive. Floppies, CDs, and DVDs are all portable, compact, and cheap. The
difference is capacity, and out storage needs long ago outstripped the lowly floppy disk.

How a CD-ROM Drive Works

In a few short years, the Compact Disk – Read Only Memory (CD-ROM) drive has gone
from pricey luxury to inexpensive necessity on the modern PC and nearly every home. The CD-
ROM has opened up new computing vistas that were never possible before, due to its high
capacity and broad applicability. In many ways, the CD-ROM has replaced the floppy disk
drive, at the same time allowing us to use our computers in ways that we never used them before.
This “multimedia revolution” was largely a result of the availability of cheap CD-ROM drives.
Special Formatting
As the name implies, CD-ROMs use compact disks, in fact, the same physical disk
format as the ones we use for music. Special formatting is used to allow these disks to hold data.
As CD-ROMs have come down in price they have become almost as common in a new PC as the
hard disk or floppy disk. Software and data is now distributed through CDs, due to their
combination of high capacity and cheap and easy manufacturing. Recent advances in technology
have also improved their performance to levels approaching those of hard disks in many
respects.
CD-ROM drives play a significant role in the following essential aspects of the computer
system:

Software Support:
The number one reason why a PC today basically must have a CD-ROM drive is the
large number of software titles that are only available on CD-ROMs. At one time there were few
titles that came on CD-ROMs and they generally came on floppy disks as well. Today, not
having a CD-ROM means losing out on a large segment of the PC software market. Also, some
CD-ROMs require a drive that meets certain minimum performance requirements.

Performance:
Today many softwares use the CD-ROM drive, hence the performance level of the drive
is important. It usually is not as important as the performance of the hard drive or system
components, such as the processor or system memory, but it is still extremely important,
depending on what you use the drive for. For obvious reasons, the more you use the CD-ROM,
the more essential it is that it performs well.

The Process
1. The laser projects a concentrated beam of light that is focused by a lens and a focusing
coil.

2. A motor constantly varies the rate at which the CD-ROM disc spins, so that regardless of
where a component, called a d e t e c t o r, is located in relation to the radius of the disc,
the portion of the disc immediately above the detector is always moving at the same
speed.

3. The surface of the reflective layer alternates between lands and pits. Lands are flat
surface areas; pits are tiny depressions in the reflective layer. These two surfaces are a
record of the 1s and 0s used to store data.

4. The laser beam penetrates a protective layer of plastic and strikes a reflective layer that
looks like aluminum foil on the bottom of the disc.

5. Light that strikes a pit is scattered, but light-that strikes a land is reflected directly back at
the detector, where it passes through a prism that deflects the reflected laser to a light-
sensing diode.

6. Each pulse of light that strikes the light-sensing diode generated a small electrical
voltage. These voltages are matched against a timing circuit to generate a steam of 1s
and 0s that the computer can understand.
The Same Old Spin
Magnetic disks such as those used in hard drives have data arranged in concentric circles
called tracks, which are divided radially into sector. Using a scheme called constant angular
velocity, the magnetic disk always spins at the same rate; that is, the tracks near the periphery of
the disk are moving faster than the tracks near the center. Because the outside sectors are
moving past the read/write heads faster, the sectors must be physically larger to hold the same
amount of data as the inner sectors. This format wastes a great deal of storage space but
maximizes the speed with which data can be retrieved.

A Different Spin
Typically, CD-ROM discs use a different scheme than to magnetic disks to stake out the
areas of the disc where data is recorded. Instead of severaltracks arranged in concentric circles,
on the CD-ROM disc, data is contained in a single track that spirals from the center of the disc to
its circumference. The track is still divided by sectors, but each sector is the same physical size.
Using a method called constant linear velocity, the disc drive constantly varies the rate at which
the disc is spinning so that as the detector moves toward the center of the disc, the disc speeds
up. The effect is that a compact disc can contain more sectors than a magnetic disk and,
therefore, more data.

How a CD-RW Works

A laser sends a low-energy light beam towards the compact disc built on a relatively thick
layer of clear polycarbonate plastic. On top of the plastic is a layer of dyed color material that is
usually green, a thin layer of gold to reflect the laser beam, a protective layer of lacquer and
often a layer of scratch-resistant polymer material. There may be a paper or silk-screened label
on top of all that. The laser’s write head follows a tight spiral groove cutting into the plastic
layer. The groove, called an atip (absolute timing in pregroove), has a continuous wave pattern
similar to that on a phonograph record. The frequency of the wave varies continuously from the
start of the groove to its end. The laser beam reflects off the waves, the CD drive can calculate
where the head is located in relation to the surface of the disc.

The head, following the atip, uses the position information provided by the groove’s
waves to control the speed of the motor turning the disc, thus the area of the disc under the head
is always moving at the same speed. To do this, the disc must spin faster as the head moves
toward the center of the disc and slower as the head approaches the rim.

The dye layer is designed to absorb light at a specific frequency resulting in a mark in
one of the three ways. The dye may be bleached; the polycarbonate layer may be distorted; or
the dye layer may form a bubble. The mark creates a distortion, called a stripe, along the spiral
track. The lengths of the stripes vary, as do the unmarked spaces among them. The CD drive
uses the varying lengths to write the information on a special code that compresses the data and
checks for errors. The change in the dye is permanent, making the recordable compact disc a
write-once, read-many (WORM) medium.

CD-Recordable Drive
The CD-Recordable drive—or an ordinary read-only CD drive—focuses a lower-
powered laser beam onto the disc to read data. Where a mark has not been made on the surface
of the disc, the gold layer reflects the beam straight back to the read head. When the beam hits a
strip, the distortion in the groove scatters the beam so that the light is not returned to the read
head. Each time the beam is reflected to the head, it generates a pulse of electricity. From the
pattern in the pulses of current, the drive decompresses the data, error-checks it, and passes it
along to the PC in the digital form of 0s and 1s.

Data is stored in the CD in a specific format, such as ISO 9096, which automatically
corrects errors and creates a table of contents. The table is needed because there is nothing like a
hard drive’s file allocation table to keep track of a file’s location. The CD drive records
information by sending a higher-powered pulse of laser beam at a light frequency of 780
nanometers.

How DVD Technology Works

A one-sided digital video disc (DVD) is make up of four main layers. First there’s a thick
polycarbonate plastic that provides a foundation for the other layers. Next, as much thinner layer
of opaque, reflective material is laid on the base. Then comes a thin layer of transparent film and
finally a surface layer of clear, protective plastic.

Data, including video, audio, text, or programs are represented, as with a CD-ROM, by a
combination of flat areas (lands) and indentations (pits) on two of the surfaces—the transparent
film and the shiny opaque layer. The DVD, pits, however, are much smaller, which is part of the
reason the DVD holds as much as 8.5MB of data, the capacity of 13 compact disc. Like a CD-
ROM drive, a DVD drive uses a laser to read the lands and pits.

Shorter Wavelength
But the DVD laser uses light that has a shorter wavelength, which makes the laser beam
narrow enough to accurately read the smaller pits and lands on the DVD surfaces. By changing
the amount of current flowing through a magnetic coil surrounding the laser beam, the DVD read
head focuses the beam so that it’s concentrated on only the surface of the transparent film. When
a beam of light hits a flat area, it is reflected back to the read head, where a prism deflects the
light to a device that converts the bursts of light energy into electricity. The computer interprets
these electrical pulses as code and data. When the laser beam hits a pit the indentation scatters
the light.

The capacity of a single-sided DVD is doubled when the same layers of opaque and
transparent materials are applied to the other side of the disc. But because current DVD drives
have only one read head, one must remove the double-side DVD and flip it over to read data on
the other side. The layer of transparent film accounts for only half the data DVD can contain.
By adjusting the amount of current in the coils surrounding the laser, the read head can change
the focal length of the laser beam so that it passes through the transparent layer. The beam then
strikes the opaque layer and reads the pits and lands on it the same as it does with the transparent
layer.

Data Formats

A CD-R drive produces audio CDs or CD-ROMs and the software handles all the
procedures. You can say to your software, “Please store these songs on this CD,” or “Please
store these data files on this CD-ROM,” and the software will do the rest. Because of this, one
doesn’t need to know any-thing about CD data formatting to create CDs. However, CD data
formatting is complex and interesting, so let’s go into it anyway.
 To understand how data are stored on a CD, one has to understand how data are stored on
a CD, one has to understand all of the different conditions the designers of the data encoding
methodology were trying to handle. Here is a fairly complete list:

 Because the laser is tracking the spiral of data using the dumps, there cannot be extended
gaps where there are no bumps in the data track. To solve this problem, data is encoded
using EFM (eight-fourteen modulation). In EFM, 8-bit bytes are converted to 14 bits,
and it is guaranteed by EFM that some of those bits well be 1s.

 Because the laser wants to be able to move between songs, data needs to be encoded into
the music telling the drive “where it is” on the disc. This problem is solved using what is
known as sub-code data. Subcode data can encode the absolute and relative position of
the laser in the track, and can also encode such things as song titles.

 Because the laser may misread a bump, there need to be error-correcting codes to
handle single-bit errors. To solve this problem, extra data bits are added that allow the
drive to detect single-bit errors and correct them.

 Because a scratch or a speck on the CD might cause a whole packet of bytes to be

misread (known as a burst error), the drive needs to be able to recover from such an
event. This problem is solved by actually interleaving the data on the disc, so that it is
stored non-sequentially around one of the disc’s circuits. The drive actually reads data
one revolution at a time, and un-interleaves the data in order to pay it.

 If a few bytes are misread in music, the worst thing that can happen is a little fuzz during
play-back. When data is stored on a CD, however, any data error is catastrophic.
Therefore, additional error correction codes are used when storing data on a CD-ROM.

Installation Instructions
Installation instructions for IDE (Atapi) Optical / CD Writers & Rewriters / DVD Drives
Preparing to install your Optical Drive

 Unpack your Optical Drive: Software Installation & User Manual Disk, Audio Cable,
Screw x 4 and Jumper
 Turn OFF your PC and attached devices
 Remove the computer cover

Determining Master/Slave configuration

Set the Master/Slave configuration by using what is called a ‘jumper pin’ (this is the only
place you can goof-up, so please read carefully).

Looking at the back of the Optical drive

 The jumper pin is usually preset in the master position

 On the Optical drive from left to right, the pin configuration is Cable Select (GS), Slave
(SL) and Master (MA)
Set the configuration jumper properly

 Verify the jumper settings of any other device on the ribbon cable to which you will be
attaching your new Optical drive, such as another Optical drive or hard drive.
 If any other device is set to Slave, jumper the new Optical drive to Master.
 If any other device is set to Master then jumper the new Optical drive as Slave.
 If any other device is set to Cable Select, or C/S, jumper the new Optical drive to Cable
Select or C/S.

Slide the drive in an available 5.25” drive slot. Secure the drive with the screws provided.

Connect the drive to a proper IDE interface (the ribbon cable).

The red strip on the ribbon cable MUST connect to the #1 pin on the Optical drives Host
interface.

Connect the drive to a sound card (if exists) through the audio cable provided.

Connect the drive to a power cable from the internal power supply.

Turn on the power supply to the system.

If you are using windows 95/98/ME or XP you will not need any drivers!

CD Writers and Rewriters require CD Copying software to work properly.

HOW CDRs WORK

A Wise Storage Device

The Move from magnetic media to optical media has made the storage device reliable, more
flexible and longer-lasting

In the nineties, storage moved from magnetic media, like floppy drives and tape drives to
optical media, in the form of CD-ROMs, CE-Rs and DVDs. Optical media is more portable,
offers greater storage capacity, is more reliable when compared with magnetic media and now
can be written and rewritten which gives it flexibility and longevity.

While CDs were initially created to store music, they were later developed into CE-
ROMs for digital storage. However, CD-ROMs were only readable and are now being replaced
by CD-Rs, CD-RWs and the DVD, which is the latest storage device.

CD-ROMs vs CD-RWs
There are certain differences between the various storage devices. While CD-ROMs can
be read only by the computer, CD-Rs and CD-RWs are designed such that the user can write data
onto the disk according to his or her specifications. For instance, CE-Rs and CD-RWs allow the
user to store a variety of formats, including MP3 music, DAT files, office documents and
software applications. The fundamental difference between the CD-ROM and the CD-R/RW is
the manner in which digital data is stored on the disc. In the conventional CD, digital data in the
form of 0s and 1s are represented by millions of tiny bumps and flat areas on the disc’s reflective
surface. The bumps and flats are arranged in a continuous spiral track that measures about 0.5
microns (millionths of a meter) in diameter and 3.5 miles (5 km) long.

A standard CD drive passes a ‘read’ laser beam over the track on which the information is
written. When the laser encounters a flat area on the track, the beam is directly reflected to an
optical sensor on the laser assembly. The CD drive interprets this as 1, and if the beam passes
over a bump, it is bounced away from the optical sensor, which is read as a 0. This is how a
standard CD drive reads data from a CD-ROM.

Unlike the bumps and flats in a conventional CD, the CD-R disc contains a dye layer
underneath a smooth, reflective surface. On a blank CD-R disc, the dye layer is translucent, so
all the light is reflected.

The CD burner has a moving laser assembly, just like an ordinary CD player. But in
addition to the standard ‘read laser’. The write laser is more powerful than the read laser and
interacts with the disc differently: It alters the surface instead of simply bouncing light off it.
Read lasers are not intense enough to darken the dye material, so simply playing a CD-R in a CD
drive will not destroy any encoded information. The write laser darkens the spots where the
bumps would be in a conventional CD, forming non-reflecting areas.

By selectively darkening particular points along the CD track, and leaving other areas of
the dye translucent, one can create a digital pattern that a standard CD player can read. The light
from the player’s laser beam will only bounce back to the sensor when the dye is left translucent.
So, even though the CD-R disc doesn’t have any bumps pressed into it, it behaves just like a
standard disc.

With CD-RW discs, the innovator has taken the idea of writing onto a CD further by
making it rewritable using an ‘erase’ function so you can record or write over data that was
previously written onto the disc.

In a CD-RW disc, the reflecting lands and non-reflecting bumps of a conventional CD are
represented by phase shifts in a special compound. When the compound is in a crystalline state,
it is translucent, so light can shine through the metal layer above and reflect back to the laser
assembly. When the compound is melted to an amorphous state, it becomes opaque, making the
area non-reflective.

In CD-RW discs, the phase-change element is a chemical compound containing silver,

antimony, tellurium and indium. As with any physical material, you can change this compound’s
form by heating it to certain temperatures.

However, since CD-RW discs do not reflect as much light as the older formats, the early
versions of CD players and CD-ROM drives cannot read them. Some newer drives and players,
including CD-RW writers, can adjust the read laser to work with different CD formats. But since
CD-RWs will not work on several CD players, there are not the best choice for music CDs. For
the most part, they are used as back-up storage devices for computer files.

Digital Versatile Disc

While the DVD is similar to a standard CD-ROM, it can store up to seven times more
data than a CD.
 Like a CD, the data on a DVD is encoded in the form of small pits and bumps in the track
of the disc. DVDs are available in various storage sizes, namely the single-side-single-layer,
which can store 4.7 GB of data, the single-side-double-layer (8.5 GB) and the double-side-
double-layer (17 GB). The double-side-double-layer format is currently popular and can be used
to store a full-length, MPEG-2-encoded movie, as well as a large amount of other information.

DVDs use small tracks (0.74 microns wide, compared to 1.6 microns on CDs) as well as
new modulation and error correction methods, which is why there is a steep increase in the
storage size.

A DVD player is mechanically similar to the standard CD drive, consisting of a laser

assembly, which uses a laser beam to read the various pits and bumps on the disc. However,
considering how small the bumps on the disc are, the DVD drive has to be extremely precise.

DVD-disks are available in various formats:

1. DVD Video: This format is used to view movies and other visual entertainment modes.
The total capacity is 17 gigabytes.
2. DVD-ROM: The basic technology is similar to the DVD video, but it also includes
computer-friendly file formats. This product should supplant conventional CD-ROMs in
the near future.

There are several recordable varieties of the DVD:

1. DVD-R: The DVD-R has a capacity of 4.7 gigabytes. Like the CD-R, users can write
only once on the disk. Its main drawback is the high cost.
2. DVD-RAM: It makes the DVD a virtual hard disk, with a random read-write access.
Originally a 2.6-gigabyte drive, its capacity has increased to 4.7-gigabyte-per-side. It can
be re-written more than 1,00,000 times. The DVD-RAM is relatively cheaper than DVD-
R and hence more viable.
3. DVD-RW: This is similar to the DVD-RAM, except that its technology features a
sequential read-write access like a phonograph. Its capacity is 4.7 GB per side. It can be
re-written 1,000 times. DVD-RW is a phase change format and can read DVD-ROM as
well as DVD-R without compatibility problems.
4. DVD Audio: This format doubles the fidelity of a standard CD and may become quite
popular.