A MultiTrack Rewritable Optical Disk Recording System for High Performance Applications: 14-inch TODS

GE has been developing high performance recording systems for ruggedized and militarized applications, covering spaceborne, airborne, shipboard and mobile applications. Through sponsorship of the Air Force's Rome Air Development Center (RADC), the 14-inch Tactical Optical Disk System (TODS) is currently being designed and built for reconnaisance aircraft applications. These applications require real time data capture and online storage of large image and sensor database files, which must be stored and retreived rapidly. This requirement translates into high performance system specifications for the 14-inch TODS optical disk storage system. Of primary concern is high, continuous data transfer rates and large data storage capacities. Large image files cannot be segmented, thus requiring the system to contain the entire data file on a single media unit, and to stream the file at a very high data transfer rate.