Philips and auction finds (was: Re: I hate Radio Shack)

From: Jim Kearney <jim_at_jkearney.com>
Date: Mon Jun 17 18:09:03 2002

>From: "Tothwolf" <tothwolf_at_concentric.net>
> Back to something more on topic... This last week at auction, I picked up
> one of the oldest cd writers I've ever seen, which is ironically made by
> Philips. It appears to have a SCSI interface, and seems to be in good
> shape physically. If there is any interest, I'll update the list once I
> get a chance to inspect it further and test it out.

If memory serves (probably not), this is likely the second or third CD-R
(after Sony) writer made. The first was made by Yamaha in a 2U rack-mount
format, and cost a good $43,000. It was intended mostly for audio work but
could make data discs as well. The Philips was the first (or second) writer
intended mainly for data, though.

I've got a Sony CDU-100 here that my company bought in mid-1986. This was
the first CD-ROM reader available, though the much smaller and cooler
Philips drive came out very shortly after. These drives are built like
tanks, unlike the year-later Hitachi's that were very popular due to their
low price. The Hitachi's also were a p.i.t.a. because of their drivers'
software timing loops that broke every time the PC went from 4 to 6 to 8 to
12 Mhz.
Received on Mon Jun 17 2002 - 18:09:03 BST

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