The first CD players for personal computers cost several hundred dollars and
required complex SCSI (small computer system interface)or specialized inter-
faces; I have a closet full of the early machines. But because of the success of
the technology on the consumer side, the price of the machines tumbled
rapidly. Today the retail price of an external CD player is not much more than
the cost of a pair of audio CDs; the cost to a laptop manufacturer for an inter-
nal CD player is even less. An example of a modern internal CD-R/DVD is
shown in Figure 9-1.How a CD-R works ..............................................................................
I’ve already discussed how a CD manufacturer makes CDs by pressing them
from a mold — very similar to the way in which old vinyl records were
pressed. It is a very efficient way to make mass quantities. Obviously, though,
that sort of system would not work for a home or office CD recorder where the
user is making the discs one at a time. So the engineers got to work and came
up with an alternate way to create discs with pits and lands. Recordable CDs
have the same shape and a similar appearance to a prerecorded CD but they
are built differently, with a special changeable layer between the top surface
and the base.Figure 9-1:
A combina-
tion CD-R
and DVD
player
packed into
a thin laptop
case.148 Part III: Laying Hands on the Major Parts