Compact Disc - Direct Access Storage Disc (CD-DASD)

Abstract

A Compact Disc - direct access storage (CD-DASD) disc has information recorded on its surface in a manner that enables randomly located, isolated (the recorded spiral track does not have to be contiguously written), fixed-length (4-Kbyte) blocks of data the disc to be reliably read via a Compact Disc player that has only minimal modifications made to it. Appropriately modified Compact Disc readers will be able to perform DASD-like data retrieval when such a disc is used. In addition, a Compact Disc writer/reader (such as a CD-E/R drive) that is configured to use the disc described in this paper will be able to write/read data in randomly located sectors that can be individually written and/or accessed as is done in a DASD device; lead-in/lead-out sectors and incremental writing (i.e., appending new information directly to the previously written portion of the spiral disc groove) as is practiced in current CD-R devices is not required.