25 Jan
2009
25 Jan
'09
10:20 p.m.
On Jan 25, 2009, at 9:31 PM, Michael wrote:
I've got some Atari 520's laying around and
was wondering what it
would take
to burn cdr's with them. I've seen ACSI to SCSI adapters (I'm
assuming this
is necessary). Assuming I hook up a SCSI CDRW to this what software
would I
need to burn disks.
It depends upon what type of CD you're trying to burn. The CD format
(low level...I'm not talking about ISO9660) is fairly complex (session
format, power lead in area, Reed-Soloman codes, etc). You also have
to be able to maintain a minimum transfer rate or else you'll just end
up making "coasters".
An excellent primer on the subject is: http://www.mrichter.com/cdr/primer/primer.htm
. Note that the section on "Bits as they are recorded" contains part
of an article I wrote on the subject in a long forgotten usenet group.
Another good place for information is: http://www.cdrfaq.org. It
contains a lot more detail than the primer. And yes, to answer the
question, I've written code to do all of the "weird" math (Galios
fields) necessary for doing low level CD stuff.
If you really want to write software for this you'll have to spend $
$'s and get *all* of the necessary specifications. Also expect to
brush up on Error Coding (math) - you won't be able to create the ECC
without it.
This of course assumes that you want to do something other than create
just data CDs. The drive handles most of that itself (but you still
need to understand the basics).
TTFN - Guy