Why is there such a love affair for optical technology???
Why should it be better? Optical disks that are durable are not writeable. Optical disks that are writeable are not durable. Why? You have to heat part of the disk up to write to it. Heating damages neighboring data quality, making it more prone to errors. Why? Heat travels.
As of yet, optical has not shown any promise of being fast like magnetic. CD-ROMS are the next worst thing to floppies. Their #1 use is to hold manufactured data, and large amounts of it. They are good at that. They hold software, until you want to USE it, then they rely on the magnetic again.
Please people, look at the speed specs. I have yet to see optical below 70ms access time. I have yet to see magnetic above 50ms access. Keep in mind these are the EXTREMES. The worst of the best is better than the best of the worst. That shows little promise for their future as well. People weakly shout out that "optical is getting faster". SO WHAT! Do you think that magnetic is not? Which has shown the most growth recently, in removable media? Simple answer. Magnetic.
There is some wierd paradigm going on here. People have this unquestionable love for optical technology.
Fact, now and a year ago magnetic priced near optical has been faster, as well as bigger (writeable media only). The optical that is faster is, guess what, more expensive, and for that faster optical, there is a similar speed magnetic which is cheaper. This is an easy call. Iomega was smart in ditching floptical. Anywhere where optical follows the footsteps of back compatibility with the CD-ROM, it is doomed (much like backcompatibility with floppy). Backcompatibility with CD-ROM means adopting it's clumsy serial like organization, which by nature makes it slow. Hey, it was designed for linear reading. It was designed for MUSIC. Computers don't think in a straight line.
CD-ROM was a winner technology. It has reasons for being so. Optical is sometimes bigger, but it is not better. Easy way of lookint at it. The scale from optical to magnetic is similar to the scale between 386 and Pentium.
Someone tell me WHY this low momentum technology is going to surpass magnetic? |
