LARGE capacity optical memories are now being applied in various fields to a variety of products, including magneto-optical discs for calculators, MDs (mini discs), portable personal computers (PCs) and electronic organisers.
Sharp Corp in Japan is one of the firms at the forefront of opto-electronic technology development, creating memories for CDs and calculators, including rewritable optical disc memory systems.
As the volume, range and availability of information increases, optical memory technology is certain to play a key part.
Its advantages are its large capacity, high reliability and high-speed random access.
The optical pick-up function uses a semiconductor laser that plays and records discs without touching them.
The high-speed random access design of the pick-up function allows it to move quickly when searching for tracks of information.
Large capacity, pre-recorded CD-ROMs, for example, can be used like CDs to give users access to dictionaries, or games, via a personal computer.