optical storage
Laser-readable data discs
Optical storage is a technology that uses laser light to read and write data on discs.
CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray discs are optical storage media—the laser reads tiny pits or marks on the disc surface as digital information.
The technology dominated music, video, and software distribution from the 1980s through the 2000s before streaming and flash drives largely displaced it.
- DVDOptical media format
- CDOptical data disc
- discFlat circular object
- disc driveDevice reading optical media
- disc trayDrive's loading mechanism
laser · laser beam · burn · land · pit · Blu-ray · polycarbonate · compact disc · archival · DVD-ROM · light · read · track · HD DVD · scratch · data · tray · drive
- storage mediablank CD, blank tape, CD, DVD, floppy disk
- data storagehard drive, hard drives, backup, gigabyte, flash drives
- photonicsphotonics, photon, optics, laser, fiber optics
- holographyhologram, holograms, holographic display, holographic displays, holographic sticker
- microfilmmicrofilm, microfiche, microform, microforms, microfilming
- OptoelectronicsLED, laser, photodiode, phototransistor, photocell
optical storagemagnetic storage
Data kept via magnetism
magnetic tape · hard disk drive · flash memory · tape drive · floppy disk
optical storagevolatile memory
Storage requiring constant power
RAM · DRAM · cache memory · SRAM · working memory