Development of Optical Disk Architecture

Abstract

Magnetic data disks have been widely in use in computer systems since the 1960s. During this period, the disks have become smaller is size as the density of the data on the media has increased. During the last 25 years the data density has increased from 2,000 bits per square inch (IBM 350) to an estimated 24 million bits per square inch on the recently announced models of the IBM 3380.