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CD-RW drives are very versatile for transporting information to both
older and newer CD and DVD ROM drives. CD-RW media can be
read by newer CD-ROM and DVD drives. These newer drives are
known as Multi Read
TM
(MR) drives. And even though CD-RW media
cannot be read by older CD-ROM drives, the 1600L i.LINK drive can
write to CD-R media which can be read by standard CD-ROM drives
and CD players.
How CD-R and CD-RW work
CD-ROM drives (CD-R and CD-RW drives as well) read the one and
zero bits by difference in reflectivity. Mass produced Compact Discs
are created by stamping “pits” in the CD. These “pits” reflect
differently than the “land” which is the area between “pits.”
CD-R drives work by using a laser beam to heat the recording layer,
causing a chemical reaction in that spot so CD-ROM players will see
this as a “pit” and the unburnt area as “land.”
CD-RW uses what is known as a “Phase Change” technology. In the
CD-RW media is a substance which can be changed from an
amorphous “mark” that very closely resembles the pits of a stamped
CD, to a crystalline state which resembles “land.” The laser beam of
the 1600L i.LINK drive changes the crystalline state to the amorphous
state by use of a laser to quickly heat the spot on the disc, forming a
mark. To change the amorphous state back to the crystalline state the
laser beam uses a lower power setting to transition the mark back to the
crystalline “land.”
Performance
The 1600L i.LINK drive is capable of writing CD-R media at 12×
MAX speed and CD-RW media at 8× MAX speed. 12× speed means
that the 1600L i.LINK drive can record a full 650 megabyte CD-R disc
in about 5 minutes. At 8× speed the 1600L i.LINK can record a full
650 megabyte CD-RW or CD-R disc in about 9 minutes.
The 1600L i.LINK drive is a multi-function device since the drive is
also capable of reading at 32× Maximum (4,800 kilobytes per second).