ABSTRACT
Magneto-optical disks are read/write disks that have grown from text-only to mixed media storage over the years. Considering the cost and the proliferation of multigigabyte hard drives, the acceptance of the magneto-optical system has remained static except for its use in specialized networked archiving operations. The floptical disk drive uses a combination of optical tracking and magnetic recording. The static nonvolatile erasable/programmable read-only memory has a lineage tracing back to the bubble memory modules of the middle 1980s. Although most of the programmable chips available today are used in sound applications, continued data compression improvement and circuit miniaturization will allow sound and images to come from nonmechanical sources. Noncomputer industries such as cable television see the personal computer card as an ideal user interface to plug into set-top boxes. The user would receive programming through a preassigned password and would also participate in interactive programming.
