Mr Tillmans - CD History Inquiry

Regarding the History of data CDs... I did some research. OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. was adapting this technology back in 1985-86. Specifically we were interested in multiple player stacks or jukeboxes for collections of database disks. Phillips, Hitachi, and Sony, were the first drives out. @ $900 - $1000 each Phillips had a proprietary interface card for the PC bus that could support two external drives. Hitachi had a card out that supported multiple configurable I/O Bus Addresses and a parallel bus structure that could support up to 4 external drives off a single interface card. (OCLC selected Hitachi) Each manufacturer also had SCSI cards that could support multiple drives. The big thing was the MSCDEX extensions supporting manufacturer dependent device drivers with their "switches" enabling multiple drives. Once the High Sierra Data format was adopted in 1985, and the MSCDEX extensions were widely distributed, CD Drives became more common. Price fell to $550-$600 ( Later MSCDEX distribution was tied to DOS Version / upgrade distribution ) After Windows 3.X software distribution consumed the worlds diskette production capacity, AT class machines began shipping with CD Drives installed.($110 price point) Here is a (google recovered) link that shows a partial reconstructed history of CD data adaptation: http://www.itc.nl/~bakker/info/rs-data/cd-family.html Sincerely Larry Truthan