This International Standard specifies the characteristics of a series of related 130 mm optical disk
cartridges (ODCs) by using a number of Type designations.
A disk has two sides, called Side A and Side B. Each side can have a nominal capacity of 2,6 Gbytes.
Type R/W provides for data to be written, read and erased many times over the
recording surface of the corresponding disk side, using the thermo-magnetic
and magneto-optical effects.
Type P-ROM provides for a part of the disk surface to be pre-recorded and reproduced by
stamping or other means. This part of the disk is read without recourse to
the magneto-optical effect. All parts which are not pre-recorded provide for
data to meet the requirements of Type R/W.
Type O-ROM provides for the whole of the disk surface to be pre-recorded and reproduced
by stamping or other means. The corresponding disk sides are read without
recourse to the magneto-optical effect.
Type DOW provides for data to be written and read many times over the recording
surface of the corresponding disk side, using the direct overwrite thermomagnetic
and magneto-optical effects requiring a single external magnetic
field.
Type P-DOW provides for a part of the disk surface to be pre-recorded and reproduced by
stamping or other means. This part of the disk is read without recourse to
the magneto-optical effect. All parts which are not pre-recorded provide for
data to meet the requirements of Type DOW.
Type WO provides write once, read multiple functionality using the thermo-magnetic
and magneto-optical effects.
Type WO-DOW provides write once, read multiple functionality using the direct overwrite
thermo-magnetic and magneto-optical effects.
In addition, for each Type, this International Standard provides for cartridges containing a disk with a
sector size of 512 bytes, cartridges containing a disk with a sector size of 1 024 bytes and cartridges
containing a disk with a sector size of 2 048 bytes. All sectors of a disk are the same size.
This International Standard specifies
- the conditions for conformance testing and the Reference Drive;
- the environments in which the cartridges are to be operated and stored;
- the mechanical, physical and dimensional characteristics of the cartridge, so as to
provide mechanical interchangeability between data processing systems;
- the format of the information on the disk, both embossed and user-written, including
the physical disposition of the tracks and sectors, the error correction codes, the
modulation methods used;
- the characteristics of the embossed information on the disk;
- the magneto-optical characteristics of the disk, enabling processing systems to write
data onto the disk;
- the minimum quality of user-written data on the disk, enabling data processing
systems to read data from the disk.
This International Standard provides for interchange between optical disk drives. Together with a
Standard for volume and file structure it provides for full data interchange between data processing
systems.