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To: crazyoldman who wrote (10925)	10/1/2000 12:10:32 AM
From: pawa	Respond to of 275872

RE: When making CD copies This is OT but I have seen a few messages about it so I though I would post this from an Adaptec newsletter: +--------------------------------------+ BurnProof Technology - How Does it Work? By Bob Starrett, cdpage.com Many of us might have thought we were dreaming when we first saw the press release from Sanyo touting its BurnProof technology. No more buffer underruns? Ha! But an examination of the process shows that it really can work, and with recording speeds on the rise, buffer underruns are still a problem, in spite of faster computers and hard disks. (There is no reason to go into detail about buffer underruns* again, other than to state that a buffer underrun occurs when the source device, or the bus it is attached to, cannot feed data quickly enough to the CD recorder to keep the recorder's buffer full. Up til now, in standard recording situations (excluding packet writing), a disc or track or session must be written continuously: the laser cannot stop and then start again. If it does stop from lack of data, that's a buffer underrun, and your disc is a coaster. BurnProof is a Sanyo trademark; the acronym is coined from the phrase "Buffer Under RuN-Proof." Recorders using the BurnProof technology can record data past the end of a recorded point where the recording was stopped due to the underrun. Obviously, any technology that can prevent buffer underruns will be widely accepted and implemented by both hardware and software vendors. Plextor has just released BurnProof recorders, as has Sanyo. But beyond the immediate apparent benefits, BurnProof offers additional help to users whose machines are tied up completely when recording because they must use all system resources to accomplish the recording task. Enabling these machines to perform other tasks while recording, such as word processing, Internet access and downloading, will be a welcome bonus for the end user. It is said that you can even do MP3 compression at the same time a drive is recording WAV files, for example. On most CD recorders, heavy hard disk activity like this is bound to produce a coaster when recording at high speeds, but the BurnProof technology apparently makes this a non-issue. Only time and testing will tell us whether it's really proof against all forms of buffer underrun. Sanyo has two chipsets that support BurnProof, one for ATAPI recorders and one for SCSI recorders. The chipset, along with the recording software, monitors the CD-R drive buffer, and when it anticipates a buffer underrun (say when the buffer is only 10 percent full, for instance), it puts the recorder into suspend mode, waits for more data from the source to fill the buffer, and then prepares for a restart by seeking the last recorded portion of the disc. Since the controller retains the address where recording was suspended, it can find that exact spot on the disc. Once found, the recorder must position the head there and start recording again. According to the Orange Book specification, any gaps between data may not be more than 100 milliseconds in length. Starting and stopping in response to a potential buffer underrun results in a data gap of 40 to 45 milliseconds, well within the Orange Book specification. These data gaps may be unexpected when reading, but CD error correction will deal with the data gap, and the user won't notice a thing. Easy CD Creator supports BurnProof from version 4.02 on. See <http://www.adaptec.com/support/advisor/cdrupdates/index.html> for updates. [*Editor's note: We published a thorough article about buffer underruns a while ago; see cdrcentral.com for a link. +--------------------------------------+ Unfamiliar word? Look it up in the CD-R Glossary: <http://www.adaptec.com/tools/glossary/cdrec.html> +--------------------------------------+ Pawa