The era of CDs is slowly but surely a thing of the past. Now, most modern users do not even know what RW disks are and how they differ from standard R and ROM. In order to understand what the difference is, you need to remember the history of their creation. Only then will it be possible to determine their main difference from classic CDs.
The history of the development of optical media CD
The first CD was developed by Philips. They are considered to be pioneers in this area. At first, optical disks had quite a bit of room for data storage. The initial volume of such a "blank" was 640 megabytes. But over time, it increased to 700. The first optical discs in the compact format were called CD-R. This meant that they could only record data once. For a long time, they were used as carriers. However, as time went on, technology evolved, and very soon manufacturers introduced the rewritable CD-RW. This abbreviation (RW) came from the English word Rewritable (with the possibility of rewriting). Such optical media has become unrealistically popular among users. The very idea of rewriting to disk seemed incredible. But there was one minus. The write speed to such media was very slow. If a standard R disc was recorded at x53 speed, then RW Classic discs needed to be written at x6 speed. But this did not last long, as standard CDs soon went out of fashion.
DVD appearance
The decline of the classic "compact" is directly related to the emergence of a new format - DVD-R. These optical drives differed in gigantic volume (compared to CDs). They could fit 4.5 gigabytes of information. It was a breakthrough. As expected, some time after the successful launch of classic DVDs, there were DVD-RW discs that allow you to record on a particular medium several times. And such a solution has become incredibly popular.
DVD discs were used almost everywhere: programs, operating systems, films and other information were recorded on them. Even music in formats without loss of quality was written specifically on DVD discs. And in this regard, DVD-RW-disks looked the most universal solution. And soon two-layer DVDs appeared that contained almost 10 gigabytes of information. This was really a breakthrough. For a long time, DVDs were used everywhere. Special players were released. They also knew how to read RW, so users recorded several films on them at once. And when they got bored, they rewrote. This went on for quite some time. But the era of DVD has come to an end.
Blu-ray era
The classic and two-layer DVD discs have been replaced by Blu-Ray media. They were distinguished by increased capacity. One such disk contained about 25 gigabytes of information. This is a lot. Around the same time, HD video formats appeared. Films in this format fit perfectly on BD. This determined the scope of such optical media - the film industry.
Indeed, keeping the library on BD was somehow wrong. Moreover, at the same time, the Internet developed rapidly and large-capacity USB drives appeared. No one needs the disks, only the BD is still afloat. And that is only thanks to those who like to watch movies in the highest quality in a home theater. Over time (as expected) two-layer BD and BD-RW disks appeared. The latter allowed rewriting information on themselves. But given the volume of Blu-ray media and the low write speed on RW, this option has not gained popularity. To this day, the BD-RW remains just an entertaining technology. But no more than that.
Currently, the relevance of Blu-ray technology is being rethought. There are new video resolutions - 2K and 4K. And they require much more space and will never fit on the classic BD disc. It’s likely that the Blu-ray era will soon end. But this is a completely different story.
Conclusion
So, we talked about the features of RW-drives and reviewed the history of the development of optical media. Classic CDs are already used exclusively in the music industry. No one has heard of DVDs for a long time. Now the ball is ruled by Blu-ray technology. But judging by the latest trends in the world of multimedia entertainment, the days of the technology described above are numbered. Perhaps now manufacturers are developing a new type of optical media. But we’ll talk about what will happen next next time ...