CompuServe Messages

I'll give it a shot, but I'm not completely sure about all this…. CD-ROM storage capacity is currently about 600MB on one side of the disc – same as an audio CD. The "basic" cd-rom file format standard is called ISO 9660 and is also known as "High Sierra" format, but ISO 9660 seems more prevalent. Unfortunately, there are all sorts of extensions at this point including CD-I (CD Interactive), CDROM-XA (Extended Architecture), and Photo-CD. I don't think any of these affect the storage capacity, just the format of the data. Sony has a small, portable CD-ROM-like reader (called ROM-man?) which I believe reads small discs. I don't know what their story is. Microsoft has a performance spec called MPC (multimedia PC) compliance. Unfortunately, the specs are very lacks (e.g., 500ms access time). Don't think you're getting any deal for buying MPC compliance. Dave