17 Jun
2002
17 Jun
'02
11:09 a.m.
From: "Tothwolf"
<tothwolf(a)concentric.net>
Back to something more on topic... This last week at auction, I picked up
one of the oldest cd writers I've ever seen, which is ironically made by
Philips. It appears to have a SCSI interface, and seems to be in good
shape physically. If there is any interest, I'll update the list once I
get a chance to inspect it further and test it out.
If memory serves (probably not), this is likely the second or third CD-R
(after Sony) writer made. The first was made by Yamaha in a 2U rack-mount
format, and cost a good $43,000. It was intended mostly for audio work but
could make data discs as well. The Philips was the first (or second) writer
intended mainly for data, though.
I've got a Sony CDU-100 here that my company bought in mid-1986. This was
the first CD-ROM reader available, though the much smaller and cooler
Philips drive came out very shortly after. These drives are built like
tanks, unlike the year-later Hitachi's that were very popular due to their
low price. The Hitachi's also were a p.i.t.a. because of their drivers'
software timing loops that broke every time the PC went from 4 to 6 to 8 to
12 Mhz.