CompuServe Thread

Dave, I've been told it's 150K. Bryan/DAK

Depends on what you mean by "transfer rate". ALL CD-ROM drives transfer data at 150K per second, because the music discs on whose technology they are based must transfer data at 44100 samples per second, with 16 bits per sample, and two channels (i.e. stereo). Thats 4 x 44100 per second, or about 150 K. But the rub is, when reading DATA, not music, can the drive _sustain_ that rate. (And there's another issue with the new double-speed drives, but forget that for now.) The problem is that when reading data, unless there is some kind of onboard buffer, most drives cannot deliver the full 150Kexcept in bursts.SCSI drives do have this buffer, so they do much better on large transfers, such as downloading bit mapped graphics. By the way, Sony is coming out with an inexpensive non-SCSI drive which WILL sustain 150 K . It is the CDU31A-01. Check it out. –Rory