15 Optical Storage Devices

Revision no.
: PPT/2K804/04
PPT/2K403/02
Optical Storage Devices

Revision no.: PPT/2K804/04
• CD-ROM and DVD technologies use high-capacity optic media
in the form of a silvery platter that holds digital data that is
decoded by striking it with a laser beam.
• DVD drives can also read CD-ROM.
• A single CD can store an entire software package.
• The following table lists the advantages of storing data on a
CD.
© CMS INSTITUTE, 2006. All rights reserved. No part of this material may be reproduced, stored or emailed without the prior permission of Programme Director, CMS Institute
Advantage Description
Large storage capacity Up to 650 MB of data fit on a

compared to floppy-type media single 5-inch disc.
Portability The CD is a portable medium.
Data cannot be changed A CD is read-only, which

prevents accidental erasure of
programs or files.
Sturdiness Durable than the standard 5.25-
inch or 3.5-inch disks.
Special capabilities CD-ROMs are audio-capable,
allowing special compression
of audio, image, and video data.
Development of the CD
• The development of the computer CD roughly paralleled the

audio (music) CD:
– In 1979, the CD, as a storage medium, was introduced in the audio
industry.
– In 1985, the CD came to the computer industry. Development was
slow because the hardware was too expensive for most
manufacturers and users.
– In 1991, the CD-ROM/XA standard was enhanced, and multimedia
requirements for hardware were specified.
– In 1993, high-quality video playback came to the computer.
– Price of CD-ROM drives continues to drop, while their speed
climbs.
CD-ROMs
• CD-ROM, or compact disc read-only memory, is an optical
read-only storage medium based on the original CD-DA (digital
audio) format.
• Formats, such as CD-R (CD recordable) and CD-RW (CD-
rewritable), are expanding the compact disc's capabilities by
making it writable.
CD-ROMs (contd.)
• CD-ROM is a read-only optical storage medium capable of
holding up to 74 or 80 minutes of high fidelity audio
(depending on the disc used), or up to 682MB (74-minute disc)
or 737MB (80-minute disc) of data, or some combination of the
two, on one side (only the bottom is used) of a 120mm (4.72-
inch) diameter, 1.2mm (0.047 inches) thick plastic disc.
CD-ROMs (contd.)
• Two main types of recordable CD drives and discs are
available, called CD-R (recordable) and CD-RW (rewritable).
• The CD-RW discs are 1.5-4 times more expensive than CD-R
discs, only half as fast (or less) as CD-R discs, and won't work
in all CD audio or CD-ROM drives, thus people usually write to
CD-R media in their CD-RW drives.
CD-ROM Technology
• It store data as a series of 1s and 0s

• Instead of using magnetic energy to read and write data, CD
readers and writers use laser energy.
• There are two major advantages to using lasers:
– There is no physical contact between the surface of the CD and
the reading device.
– The diameter of the laser beam is so small that storage tracks can
be written very close together, allowing more data to be stored in
a smaller space.
Structure of CD-ROM
• A CD platter is composed of a reflective layer of aluminum

applied to a synthetic base that is composed of polymers.
• A layer of transparent polycarbonate covers the aluminum.
• A protective coating of lacquer is applied to the surface to
protect it from dust, dirt, and scratches.
Structure of CD-ROM (contd.)
• Data is written by creating pits and lands on the CD's surface.

• A pit is a depression on the surface, and a land is the height of
the original surface.
• The transition from a land to a pit or a pit to a land represents a
binary character of 1.
• Lands and pits represent binary 0.
Structure of CD-ROM (contd.) Cont…
• There are around 4 to 5 million pits per CD, arranged in a
single outward-running spiral (track) around 3.75 miles (6
kilometers) long.
• The distance between each track is 1.6 microns of a meter.
Reading Operation from CD-ROM
• Reading the information back is a matter of bouncing a low-
powered laser beam off the reflective layer in the disc.
• Laser shines a focused beam on the underside of the disc, and
a photosensitive receptor detects when the light is reflected
back.
• When the light hits a land (flat spot) on the track, the light is
reflected back; however, when the light hits a pit (raised
bump), no light is reflected.
Reading Operation from CD-ROM (contd.)
• As the disc rotates over the laser and receptor, the laser
shines continuously while the receptor sees what is essentially
a pattern of flashing light as the laser passes over pits and
lands.
• Each time the laser passes over the edge of a pit, the light
seen by the receptor changes in state from being reflected to
not reflected or vice versa.
• Microprocessors in the drive translate the light/dark and
dark/light (pit edge) transitions into 1 bits, translate areas with
no transitions into 0 bits, and then translate the bit patterns
into actual data or sound.
Drive Mechanical Operation
• Laser diode emits a low-

energy infrared beam
toward a reflecting mirror.
• The servo motor, on
command from the
microprocessor, positions
the beam onto the correct
track on the CD-ROM by
moving the reflecting
mirror.
Drive Mechanical Operation (contd.)
• When the beam hits the disc, its refracted light is gathered and
focused through the first lens beneath the platter, bounced off
the mirror, and sent toward the beam splitter.
• The beam splitter directs the returning laser light toward

another focusing lens.
• Last lens directs the light beam to a photo detector that

converts the light into electric impulses.
• These incoming impulses are decoded by the microprocessor

and sent along to the host computer as data.
CD Drive Speed
• CDs originally were designed to record audio, the speed at

which the drive reads the data had to be constant.
• To maintain this constant flow, CD-ROM data is recorded
using a technique called constant linear velocity (CLV).
• The track is spiral that is wound more tightly near the centre of
the disc and the disc must spin at various rates to maintain the
same track linear speed.
• Speed of rotation in a 1x drive (1.3 meters per second is
considered 1x speed) varies from 540rpm when reading the
start (inner part) of the track down to 212rpm when reading the
end (outer part) of the track.
CD Drive Speed (contd.)
• A drive that spins twice as fast was called a 2x drive, one that
spins four times faster was called 4x.
• At higher speeds than this, it became difficult to build motors
that could change speeds (spin up or down) as quickly as
necessary when data was read from different parts of the disc.
• Most drives rated faster than 12x spin the disc at a fixed
rotational, rather than linear speed which is termed constant
angular velocity (CAV).
• Speeds are usually expressed as a multiple of the original
audio CD data transfer rate (150 Kb/sec).
• CD-ROM drives have been available in speeds from 1x up to
56x and beyond.
CD-ROM File Systems
• Manufacturers of early CD-ROM discs required their own

custom software to read the discs.
• In 1985-1986, several companies got together and published
the High Sierra file format specification, which finally enabled
CD-ROMs for PCs to be universally readable.
• Several file systems are used on CDs now which are as
follows:
– High Sierra
– ISO 9660 (based on High Sierra)
– Joliet
– UDF (Universal Disk Format)
High Sierra
• In 1985, representatives from TMS, DEC, Microsoft, Hitachi,

LaserData, Sony, Apple, Philips, 3M, Video Tools, Reference
Technology, and Xebec met at what was then called the High
Sierra Hotel and Casino in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, to create a
common logical format and file structure for CD-ROMs.
• This agreement enabled all drives using the appropriate driver

(such as MSCDEX.EXE supplied by Microsoft with DOS) to
read all High Sierra format discs, opening the way for the mass
production and acceptance of CD-ROM software publishing.
ISO 9660
• ISO 9660 was released in 1988 and was based on the work
done by the High Sierra group.
• ISO 9660 has three levels of interchange that dictate the
features that can be used to ensure compatibility with different
systems.
• ISO 9660 Level 1 is the lowest common denominator of all CD
file systems and is capable of being read by almost every
computer platform, including Unix and Macintosh.
• Level 2 interchange rules have the same limitations as Level 1,
except that the filename and extension can be up to 30
characters long.
ISO 9660 (contd.)
• Level 3 interchange rules are

the same as Level 2 except
that files don't have to be
contiguous.
• ISO 9660 data starts at 2

seconds and 16 sectors into
the disc, which is also
known as logical sector16 of
track one.
ISO 9660 (contd.)
• This data identifies the location of the volume area-where the
actual data is stored.
• System area also lists the directories in this volume as the
volume table of contents (VTOC), with pointers or addresses to
various named areas.
Joliet
• Joliet is an extension of the ISO 9660 standard developed by
Microsoft for use with Windows 95 and later.
• Joliet enables CDs to be recorded using filenames up to 64
characters long, including spaces and other characters from
the Unicode international character set.
Universal Disk Format
• UDF is a relatively new file system created by the Optical

Storage Technology Association (OSTA) as an industry-
standard format for use on optical media such as CD-ROM and
DVD.
• UDF has several advantages over the ISO 9660 file system
used by standard CD-ROMs but is most noted because it is
designed to work with packet writing, a technique for writing
small amounts of data to a CD-R/RW disc, treating it much like
a standard magnetic drive.
Interface Type
• Drive's interface is the physical connection of the drive to the

PC's expansion bus.
• Types of interfaces available for attaching a CD-ROM, CD-R, or

CD-RW drive to your system are
– ATA/ATAPI (AT Attachment/AT Attachment Packet Interface)
– Parallel port
– SCSI/ASPI (Small Computer System Interface/Advanced SCSI

Programming Interface)
– USB port
Media Types
• Writable CDs
– CD originally was conceived as a read-only device, these days
one easily can create their own data and audio CDs.
– In CD-R media, after you fill a CD-R with data, it is permanently
stored and can't be erased.
– Write-once limitation makes this type of disc less than ideal for
system backups or other purposes in which it would be preferable
to reuse the same media over and over.
– When first introduced, there were many CD-R-only drives;
however, today most recordable CD drives are both CD-R and CD-
RW in one.
Media Types (contd.)
• CD-R
– CD-Rs function using the same principle as standard CD-ROMs,
by bouncing laser light off the disc and tracking the changes in
reflectivity when pit/land and land/pit boundaries are encountered.
– To record on a CD-R disc, a laser beam of the same wavelength
(780nm) as is normally used to read the disc, but with 10 times the
power, is used to heat up the dye.
– The high temperature of the laser burns the organic dye, causing
it to become opaque.
– When read, this prevents the light from passing through the dye
layer to the gold and reflecting back, having the same effect of
cancelling the laser reflection that an actual raised pit would on a
normal stamped CD.
Media Types (contd.)
• CD-RW
– In early 1996, an industry consortium that included Ricoh, Philips,
Sony, Yamaha, Hewlett-Packard, and Mitsubishi Chemical
Corporation announced the CD-RW format.
– Ricoh was the first manufacturer to introduce a CD-RW drive in
May of 1996 which was a 2/2/6 (2x record, 2x rewrite, 6x read)
rated unit.
– CD-RW drives are fully backward compatible with CD-R drives and
can read and write the same CD-R media with the same
capabilities.
– With packet-writing software, they can even be treated like a giant
floppy disk, where you can simply drag and drop or copy and
delete files at will.
– CD-RW media being rewritable and costing a bit more, they also
are writable at about half (or less) the speed of CD-R discs.
Recording Software
• A difficulty with CD-R/RW devices is that they require special

software to write them.
• Most cartridge drives and other removable media mount as
standard devices in the system and can be accessed exactly
like a hard drive, the CD-R/RW drive uses special CD-ROM
burning software to write to the disc.
• Software assembles the directory information, burns it onto
the CD, opens each file on the CD, and copies the data directly
from the original source.
E.g Nero is an example of such software.
Choosing the Right CD-ROM
• One can select the right one for needs, depending upon the
following characteristics:
– Physical Characteristics
– DISC Loading
– INTERNAL OR EXTERNAL
– Data Transfer Rate
– Access Time
– Caching
– Buffers
DVD
• What is DVD
• DVD, which stands for

Digital Versatile Disc, is
one of optical disc
storage technology. It's
essentially a bigger,
faster CD that can hold
video as well as audio
and computer data.
DVD (contd.)
DVD different from CD

CD DVD
Disc Diameter 120 mm 120mm and 80mm
Disc Thickness 1.2mm 1.2mm
Disc Structure Single substrate Two bonded 0.6 mm substrates
Laser Wavelength 780mm (infrared) 650 and 635 nm (red)
Track Pitch 1.6um 0.74um
Shortest pit/and length 0.83um 0.4um
Data Layers 1 1 or 2
Data Capacity Aprox. 680 megabytes Single layer: 4.7GB ×2(side)
Dual layer: 8.5 GB × 2(side)
Reference Data Rate 153.6 kilobytes/sec 1,108 kilobytes/sec, nominal
to 176.4 kilobytes/sec
How DVD works
• A DVD stores data in little pits in a single spiraling track on a
reflective metal surface embedded in plastic.
• A laser in the drive reads the pits as zeros.
• The challenge in developing DVD was simple; increase data
capacity by packing as many pits as possible onto a disc;
using inexpensive technology.
Cont….
How DVD works (contd.)
Reasons For Increase In Capacity
• Smaller pit length.
• Tighter tracks.
• Slightly larger data area.
• More efficient channel bit modulation.
• More efficient error correction.
How DVD works (contd.)
Sides of DVD
• SSSL (Single Sided Single Layer)
• SSDL (Single Sided Double Layer)
• DSSL (Double Sided Single Layer)
• DSDD(Double Sided Double Layer)
Features Of DVD
• Durability (no wear from playing, only from physical damage).

• Not susceptible to magnetic fields.
• Resistant to heat.
• Compact size (easy to handle and store, players can be
portable, replication is cheaper).
• Connectivity is similar to that of CD-ROM drives: EIDE (ATAPI),
SCSI-2, etc.
• All DVD-ROM drives have audio connections for playing audio
CDs.
Features Of DVD (contd.)
Speeds Of DVD
• Seek time of 150-200ms.
• Access time of 200-250ms.
• Data transfer rate of 1.3 MB/s with burst transfer rates of upto
12 MS/s or higher.
Recordable Versions Of DVD
• DVD-R
• DVD-RAM
• DVD+RW
DVD-R
• DVD-R uses organic dye polymer technology like CD-R and is

compatible with almost all DVD drives.
DVD-RAM
• DVD-RAM use technology that is not compatible with current
drives (because of reflectivity differences, and minor format
differences).
• A wobbled groove is used to provide clocking data, with marks
written in both the groove and the land between grooves.
• Single-sided DVD-RAM discs come with or without cartridges.
There are two types of cartridges: type 1 is sealed, type 2
allows the disc to be removed.
• Double-sided DVD-RAM discs will be available in sealed
cartridges only.
DVD+RW
• DVD Phase-Change Rewritable, called DVD+RW without the

blessing of the DVD Forum, is a competing erasable format
announced by Philips, Sony, Hewlett-Packard and others
based on CD-RW technology. DVD+RW drives will read DVD-
ROMs and CDs, but are not compatible with DVD-RAM.
• DVD Production.
• Development Replication.
• DVD-ROMs can be developed with traditional multimedia

software tools such as Macromedia Director, and C++.
DVD+RW (contd.) Cont….
• Replication Usually done by large plants. Plants provide
‘check disc’ for testing before mass duplication
• DVD Video Development
• Encoding
• Authoring (Design,Layout, and Testing)
• Premastering (Formatting a disk image)
DVD+RW (contd.)
• Most scratches will cause minor channel data errors that are
easily corrected.
• A common misperception is that a scratch will be worse on a

DVD than on a CD because of higher storage density and
because video is heavily compressed. DVD data density is
physically four times that of CD-ROM, so it's true that a scratch
will affect more data. But DVD error correction is at least ten
times better and more than makes up for the density increase.
DVD+RW (contd.)
• It's also important to realize that MPEG-2 and Dolby Digital
compression are partly based on removal or reduction of
imperceptible information, so decompression doesn't expand
the data as much as might be assumed.
DVD Video
• DVD is vastly superior to videotape and generally better than

laser-disc.
• However, quality depends on many production factors. Until

compression experience and technology improves we will
occasionally see DVD's that are inferior to laser-discs.
• Also, since large amounts of video have already been encoded

for Video CD using MPEG-1, a few low-budget DVD's will use
that format (which is no better than VHS) instead of higher-
quality MPEG-2.
Capacities Of DVD
• DVD (8cm, SS/SL): 1.36 (1.4 G), about half an hour
• DVD (8cm, SS/DL): 2.48 GB (2.7 G), about 1.3 hrs.
• DVD (8cm, DS/SL): 2.72 GB (2.9 G), about 1.4 hrs.
• DVD (8cm, DS/DL): 4.95 GB (5.3 G), about 2.5 hrs.
• DVD (12cm, SS/SL): 4.38 GB (4.7 G) of data, over 2 hrs. of video
• DVD (12cm, SS/DL): 7.95 GB (8.5 G), about 4 hrs.
• DVD (12cm, DS/SL): 8.75 GB (9.4 G), about 4.5 hrs.
• DVD (12cm, DS/DL): 15.90 GB (17 G), over 8 hrs.
Capacities Of DVD (copied.) Cont. …
• DVD-R (8cm, SS/SL): 1.15 GB (1.23 G)
• DVD-R (8cm, DS/SL): 2.29 GB (2.46 G)
• DVD-R (12cm, SS/SL): 3.68 GB (3.95 G)
• DVD-R (12cm, DS/SL): 7.38 GB (7.9 G)
• DVD-RAM (12cm, SS/SL): 2.40 GB (2.58 G)
• DVD-RAM (12cm, DS/SL): 4.80 GB (5.16 G)
Notation and units
• There's confusion of units of measurement in the DVD world.
• For example, a single-layer DVD holds 4.7 billion bytes (G

bytes), not 4.7 gigabytes (GB). It only holds 4.38 gigabytes.
• Likewise, a double-sided, dual-layer DVD holds only 15.90

gigabytes, which is 17 billion bytes.
• The problem is that "kilo," "mega," and "giga" generally

represent multiples of 1000 (10^3, 10^6, and 10^9), but when
used in the computer world to measure bytes they generally
represent multiples of 1024 (2^10, 2^20, and 2^30).
Notation and units (contd.)
• Most DVD figures are based on multiples of 1000, in spite of
using notation such as GB and KB/s that traditionally have
been based on 1024
• To get an unambiguous notation is to use Kbps for thousands
of bits/sec, Mbps for millions of bits/sec, KB for 1024 bytes,
MB for 1,048,576 bytes, and GB for 1,073,741,824 bytes. GB
means gigabytes (2^30), G means billions of bytes (10^9)
Design & Published by:

CMS Institute, Design & Development Centre, CMS House, Plot No. 91, Street No.7,
MIDC, Marol, Andheri (E), Mumbai –400093.
www.cmsinstitute.co.in

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Revision no.

Optical Storage Devices

Optical Storage Devices

• CD-ROM and DVD technologies use high-capacity optic media

in the form of a silvery platter that holds digital data that is

decoded by striking it with a laser beam.

• DVD drives can also read CD-ROM.

• A single CD can store an entire software package.

• The following table lists the advantages of storing data on a

Optical Storage Devices

Large storage capacity Up to 650 MB of data fit on a

Portability The CD is a portable medium.

Data cannot be changed A CD is read-only, which

• The development of the computer CD roughly paralleled the

• CD-ROM, or compact disc read-only memory, is an optical

read-only storage medium based on the original CD-DA (digital

• Formats, such as CD-R (CD recordable) and CD-RW (CD-

rewritable), are expanding the compact disc's capabilities by

• CD-ROM is a read-only optical storage medium capable of

holding up to 74 or 80 minutes of high fidelity audio

(depending on the disc used), or up to 682MB (74-minute disc)

or 737MB (80-minute disc) of data, or some combination of the

two, on one side (only the bottom is used) of a 120mm (4.72-

inch) diameter, 1.2mm (0.047 inches) thick plastic disc.

• Two main types of recordable CD drives and discs are

available, called CD-R (recordable) and CD-RW (rewritable).

in all CD audio or CD-ROM drives, thus people usually write to

CD-R media in their CD-RW drives.

• It store data as a series of 1s and 0s

• A CD platter is composed of a reflective layer of aluminum

Structure of CD-ROM (contd.)

• Data is written by creating pits and lands on the CD's surface.

Structure of CD-ROM (contd.) Cont…

• There are around 4 to 5 million pits per CD, arranged in a

single outward-running spiral (track) around 3.75 miles (6

• The distance between each track is 1.6 microns of a meter.

Reading Operation from CD-ROM

• Reading the information back is a matter of bouncing a low-

powered laser beam off the reflective layer in the disc.

• Laser shines a focused beam on the underside of the disc, and

a photosensitive receptor detects when the light is reflected

reflected back; however, when the light hits a pit (raised

bump), no light is reflected.

Reading Operation from CD-ROM (contd.)

Drive Mechanical Operation

• Laser diode emits a low-

Drive Mechanical Operation (contd.)

• The beam splitter directs the returning laser light toward

• Last lens directs the light beam to a photo detector that

• These incoming impulses are decoded by the microprocessor

• CDs originally were designed to record audio, the speed at

CD Drive Speed (contd.)

CD-ROM File Systems

• Manufacturers of early CD-ROM discs required their own

• In 1985, representatives from TMS, DEC, Microsoft, Hitachi,

• This agreement enabled all drives using the appropriate driver

ISO 9660 (contd.)

• Level 3 interchange rules are

• ISO 9660 data starts at 2

ISO 9660 (contd.)

• This data identifies the location of the volume area-where the

actual data is stored.

• System area also lists the directories in this volume as the

volume table of contents (VTOC), with pointers or addresses to