Optical Storage

          Optical Storage is another methods that archives are using to store their digital materials for long term storage. Encyclopedia Britannica defines optical storage as a storage medium that uses lasers to record and retrieve digital content. Optical storage works when a laser bean encodes digital data onto an optical disk on the surface of the disk that has tiny pits arranged in concentric tracks. To read the digital data of the disks a lower powered laser scanner is used to read the pits on the disks surface by the variation of intensity of the reflected light from the pits that is being converted into electric signals.

Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/optical-storage

         The different types of optical storage are CDs, DVDs, and Blue-ray Discs, The standard CD holds around seven hundred megabytes of digital data while a DVD can hold about 4.7 gigabytes (which is the same as 4700 megabytes) of digital data because it can be recorded on both sides of the disc. There are different variations of CDs and DVDs based on their ability to be rewritten. If a CD or DVD cannot be written over it is called a CD-ROM and DVD-ROM. CD-RW and DVD-RWs may be written over multiple times while a CD-R and DVD-R may only be written over once. The Blue-ray disk allows for a higher recording density to hold more digital data because of its blue-laser technology (Optical Storage, Miller School of Medicine University of Miami, 2015).

Britannica, E. (2015, September 11). Optical Storage. Retrieved from Encyclopedia Britannica: http://www.britannica.com/topic/optical-storage
Miami, M. S. (2008). Optical Storage. Retrieved from Miller School of Medicine University of Miami: http://it.med.miami.edu/x980.xml