Compact-disk player, cheap CD-ROM reader??

[Henk Peek]

CD-ROM readers are expensive (or not ?).

With a low-cost audio compact-disk player and some additional
hardware, it can be done much cheaper.

Questions:

-Is the CD-ROM error-correction and data-format identical
to the (audio) compact-disk.
-Are there procedings of the first CD-ROM conference 1986?
-Are there other usefull references?

I will summarize direct replays to net.periphs

Uucp: he...@nikhefk.UUCP ..!seismo!mcvax!nikhefk!henkp
Mail: Henk Peek, NIKHEF-K, PB 4395, 1009 AJ Amsterdam, Holland

[Don Gentner]

In article <4...@nikhefk.UUCP>, he...@nikhefk.uucp (Henk Peek) writes:
> -Is the CD-ROM error-correction and data-format identical
> to the (audio) compact-disk.
> -Are there procedings of the first CD-ROM conference 1986?
> -Are there other usefull references?

The CD-ROM format is built on top of the CD-Audio format. The basic
data unit in CD-Audio is the frame (24 bytes of audio data).
In CD-ROM, the basic unit is the block, made up of 98 frames for a
total of 2352 bytes of data per block. There are two CD-ROM formats.
In Mode 1, a block contains 16 bytes of header, 2048 bytes of user data,
and 288 bytes of error detection and correction codes.
These 288 bytes of ED/EC are in addition to the normal error detection
and correction codes in CD-Audio, giving Mode 1 CD-ROM a nominal error
rate of 1 error per 200 million discs!!!
In Mode 2, a block contain 16 bytes of header and 2336 bytes of
user 18 data. Mode 1 is normally used for text and data; Mode 2
is used for graphics and sound, where a few errors don't hurt so much.

I don't believe there are procedings of the CD-ROM conference.

There's some discussion of CD-ROM format in Byte, May 1986, pp 164-165.

Don Gentner
Philips Laboratories
Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510
gen...@nprdc.arpa
{seismo,decvax,ihnp4}!philabs!gentner