operations. Most computers today are equipped with a rewritable optical drive. (See
Appendix A for further detail on development of standards and formats for CD storage.)
Optical Drives Optical drives are complex mechanical devices that move a laser light
along a track on the disc. The laser reflects light back to a system of mirrors that direct
reflections to a photo detector. A tracking mechanism controls the location of the laser
beam on the disc (see Figure 3.15). Early optical drive motors varied rotational speed
from 500 rpm, when the light was at the center of the disc, to 200 rpm when ...
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