Re: Somewhat OT question about CD-ROM speeds

<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Norm Dresner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> :    The reason I asked was that I have an ancient SCSI CD-ROM drive for
my
> : SGU Indigo2 which I believed to be a 1x drive.  It achieved a sustained
> : transfer rate of 8.6 MB/Min or 146 MB/Sec so I guess that indeed
verifies my
> : suspicion that it is indeed 1x.  BTW, if anyone asks you, it takes ~72
> : minutes to transfer the contents of a full (655MB) CD-ROM at 1x.
> :
>
> Observant readers will notice that one full CD contains 72 minutes of
> audio... I'm pretty sure that this is why 1x was chosen as what it is :)

The story I heard was that it was required to license the patent from
Philips.  Either they changed the requirement or the patent expired,
creating the ever escalating speed market.

The other old story is that the 72 minutes was timed for Beethoven's 9th
symphony.

-- glen