🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <363@elan.UUCP>, jlo@elan.UUCP (Jeff Lo) writes:
> The Wall Street Journal today said it is a magneto-optical disk, so
> perhaps it is a hybrid of both technologies [WORM + Winchester]
> on a single medium.
> 
No; magneto-optical disks are a brand new* effect.  Basically, the heat of
the write laser is used to alter the magnetization of the spot on the disk;
this changes the optical properties of that spot (the polarization, I believe)
and thus changes what the read laser will see.

[*Well, I suppose this effect was inherent in the way the physical laws sorted
themselves out as the Big Bang cooled, but you know what I mean :-].
-- 
John Woods, Charles River Data Systems, Framingham MA, (617) 626-1101
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