The Silver Disc: A Brief History of the CD-ROM [All History]

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======The Silver Disc: A Brief History of the CD-ROM======
The Compact Disc Read-Only Memory, or [[CD-ROM]], is a pre-pressed optical disc used to store digital data. Physically, it is a deceptively simple object: a 120-millimeter-wide, 1.2-millimeter-thick disc made primarily of polycarbonate plastic, coated with a thin layer of aluminum to create a reflective surface, and protected by a lacquer finish. Yet, beneath this unassuming exterior lies a microscopic landscape of billions of pits and lands, a digital manuscript spiraling outwards from the center. This landscape is read not by a needle in a groove, but by a focused beam from a [[Laser]], translating the reflected patterns back into the ones and zeros of the digital universe. With a typical storage capacity of around 650 to 700 megabytes, the CD-ROM was a vessel of unprecedented volume for its time. It was the first technology to bring vast quantities of digital information—from entire encyclopedias and complex video games to massive software suites—into the home in a single, durable, and relatively inexpensive package. More than a mere storage device, the CD-ROM was the catalyst for the multimedia revolution of the 1990s, fundamentally changing how we learn, play, and interact with the [[Personal Computer]] and paving the way for the digital-first world we inhabit today.
===== From Groove to Pit: The Ancestry of Digital Light =====
The story of the CD-ROM does not begin with computers, but with the century-long quest to capture and reproduce sound. Its deepest ancestor is the grooved shellac and later vinyl