Why does it seem like CD-ROM device speeds have kind of topped out for the last year or so?

[Midnight Rambler]

<< I guess it's pretty difficult to keep CDROMs spinning stably at such high speeds. There is a practical limit to how fast you can spin it without it trying to shake itself or tear itself to pieces. There are noise, heat and vibration considerations too. >>

The principles of Dynamics will win out every time !

 

[soulm4tter]

Phane says &quot;

<< 66mb/s is fast, but cd-roms are already catching up to that point. >>

&quot;

Hardly. Not even the fastest CD-ROMs burst over 20mb/s. A bus bottleneck is not a factor.

50x drives are too loud already so you don't want to spin them any faster. You can't change the areal density like hard drives either. Somebody will come out with a Technology that reads faster i'm sure.

 

[Supergax]

Even though there has been many problems with the Zen technology used in Kendwood CD-ROM drives, it is one of the first steps towards higher speed cd-roms. And based on the method in which it works - by difracting a laser into 7 beams and then reading it in parralel, if improved this method could work very well in producing higher read speeds without increasing the rotation of the cd.

Kenwood has their problems, but should be given some recognition for the fact that they are really the only company taking any steps to improve cd-rom speed at the moment. Look at Creative, their 52x cd-rom sounds like a frickin jet engine, and compare it to the 72x Kenwood (which I have), which you can barely even tell that the cd-rom drive is reading it's so quiet.