Based on the Digital Optical Recorder Philips has developed a computer system, called "Megadoc", for the storage and retrieval of several millions of images of original documents to be used in office automation applications. The design features modularity and expandibilaty to allow growth and easy interfacing (one to many workstations, limited to vast storage capacity), applying as much as possible normal EDP components and peripherals. Standard EDP and WP are also available in Megadoc, such that the storage of EDP, WP and imaginal data can be intermixed.

A large capacity optical disk document filing system has been developed. The system is named TOSFILE3200. One optical cassette disk can contain up to 60,000 A4 documents, and each document can be accessed in a few second. The system can also handle A3 documents in 16 dots/mm resolution suitable for the filing of drawings. The filing structure is like a familiar paper file, and it is easy to understand and remember. The aimed document can be retrieved quickly by various approaches.

A high performance DRAW type disk is developed, and the disk is used in Hitachi's newly developed file memory system, HITFILE 60. The total capacity of the system is 83 gigabytes, and the mean access time is about 6 seconds, on single disk, the mean access time is 250 msec. The resolution of the picture is about 16x15.4 lines/mm. The disk, which diameter is 300 mm 0, has the storage capacity is 1.3 gigabytes for single sided type (0C-301-1) or 2.6 gigabytes for double sided type (0C-301-2).The track pitch is 1.61μm and 48,000 tracks are engraved spirally. A track is devided into 64 sectors and 512 bites of user's data can be recorded in each sector. Low error rate of 10-12, has been confirmed after error correction, with above mentioned file memory system. Long life, more than 10 years in normal room condition, has confirmed by accellerated life test under the condition of 60°C 95 %RH. The disk is consisted of three layers on chemically tempered glass plate with 1.1 mm thickness. The first layer is UV-curable polymer layer, the 2nd is intermediate layer of cellulose nitrate, this ensures precise pits formation on grooves, the 3rd isTe-Se-Pb alloy recording layer. The disk has the air sandwitch structure, in which two disks above mentioned are pasted together with 0.6 mm air gap. The disk is completly protected from dust, finger prints and scratches by newly developed plastic cartridge.

Growth in knowledge has generated information in an ever-increasing volume and, simul-taneously, has given rise to the need for its efficient distribution and long term pre-servation. The new generation of storage media must be removable, possess a high recording capacity and achieve substantially improved storage life over what magnetic media can achieve for archival purposes. Gigadisc meets all these requirements : The Gigadisc digital optical disk of Thomson-CSF is a computer peripheral which uses solid-state technology to store data. GIGADISC allows for the "irreversible" storage of large volumes of digital data. Its 12" disk offers a capacity of one thousand megabytes (one gigabyte) on each of the recording surfaces. Once written, the data can no longer be altered. The disk is exchangeable and is protected within a cartridge which facilitates manipulations of the disk. The disk together with the GIGADISC drive has been designed to provide for an archivable life of over 10 years. The read-write unit includes a laser and an optical head. It can access each block in the disk either at random or in sequence. The SCSI interface allows for connecting GIGADISC to most computers. Its Controller can handle up to 8 GIGADISC read/write units. Maintenance tests can be performed via a terminal connected to the controller. A high-level of performance is achieved by GIGADISC : the access time is of 10 ms within a band of 40 tracks, 200 ms average beyond the current band, excluding 27 ms of average latency. The GIGADISC read/write unit is supplied either in a rack-mounted chassis or as a small stand-alone unit for installation apart on the top of a desk. This wide range of facilities makes GIGADISC very attractive for running a great variety of applications in the office automation, data processing and image storage/retrieval environment.

The Institute for Computer Sciences and Technology at the National Bureau of Standards is pleased to cooperate with the International Society for Optical Engineering and to join with the other distinguished organizations in cosponsoring this conference on applications of optical digital data disk storage systems.

During the last fifteen years, earth observation satellites like LANDSAT or SEASAT have been revealed as tools of prime interest for the acquisition of a specific type of information said to be remotely-sensed. Many fields have taken advantage of the analysis and processing of this information. This is the case for such applications as land-use planning, water resource management or pollution prevention. Most of the time however, satellite data do not bring as much as they could. The benefit resulting from their collection is indeed limited, due to the huge amount of information they represent, and the difficulty or even the impossibility to process all of them. In most cases, they are stored on magnetic tapes either in original or in a preprocessed form, and the analysis of the frames is done on an individual base, except for large installations that permit to manage large scale studies (e.g. weather forecasting). The use of the digital optical disk will eliminate this limitation by allowing the on-line storage and processing of vast amounts of remotely-sensed data, thus bringing them an extra-value. This is what we want to show within a few examples.

The European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) has embarked upon a project to provide a back-end file server subsystem to a variety of worker machines ranging from a VAX 11-750 to a CRAY X- MP. The project commenced in mid-1982 with a procurement phase, which lasted almost 12 months and is presently in the implementation phase. It is expected that a significant proportion of the project will be completed during 1984. The file server is based upon IBM architecture and will be connected to the worker machines using a 50 million bits per second proprietary local area network supplied by Control Data Corporation. The file server will support a large meteorological database which currently contains around 2 x 10¹³ bits of information and which is growing at a rate of 3 x 10¹² bits per year. A variety of magnetic storage devices (Disk Mass Storage System and Tape) will provide a hierarchical storage system which is well placed to be able to use new devices as they emerge. The paper will describe in detail the application, and the hardware and software necessary to realise the solution adopted at ECMWF. It will also examine its requirements for new storage devices, with particular emphasis on Optical Digital Data Disk Technology.

SARDE project aims to replace a 5 million pages technical documentation, partly reproduced in 2000 sites, by a fully electronic storage, retrieval and display system. This system architecture is as follow : 1/ the acquisition of documents (their format is A4 to AO) is done by scanners ; the documents are then processed ans compressed, 2) the document storage uses several THOMSON GIGADISC, supported by a dedicated architecture, able to provide high efficiency, great reliability and easy exploitation ; juke-boxes can be used ; 3) the documents are accessed by a classical data base ; 4) the documents are sent to remote users through 64 Kbits links ; 5) remote users are provided with a workstation, consisting of a high definition screen (4 million pixels, 19 " size), a powerful microcomputer, a small image printer, local disk and network interface. A prototype system is to be built for 1985, and experimented in real context with end users.

One of the world's largest and technically most advanced press data banks is being run as a back-up system for journalists by Gruner + Jahr publishers in Hamburg. The text bank alone now contains 2 million pages of facsimile text, each of which can be electronically located and retrieved within a few seconds from automated microfiche reader-printers. Daily input to the system is about 1,000 pages, output 2,800. Within the next 3 years the total archive since 1972 is to be converted to electronic storage. The archiv then will contain about 4 million pages. Texts cover all aspects of life, and over Zoo top international sources. Digital optical recording (DOR) upgrades the performance of this system. In particular: 1. extend storage space, 2. speed up soft document delivery, 3. fully mechanize document print, 4. improve readability, 5. open up almost unlimited possibility of arranging new document collections for distributed use, 6. extend the range of document delivery to distant user places. Installation of the first phase started at the end of march.

In modern hospitals the attention paid to the problem of lending and archiving of images is increasing. In almost every (big) hospital complaints are heard concerning missing X-ray images and lack of storage space. The use of the computer and digital storage systems might lead to a solution of these problems. However enormous amounts of data are involved, ranging per image from 128 kbytes for a CT-scan to over 2 Mbytes for a thorax X-ray. For the Leiden university hospital (940 beds) this implies a daily production of about 8000 Mbytes of uncompressed data after digitisation. At this moment, a study is in progress carried out by the central development organisation (BAZIS) of a group of Dutch cooperating hospitals, aiming at a well founded choice of a system framework. During this study extensive use is made of the information available from the existing Hospital Information System (HIS). The acquired data will be used as input to a simulation model, which should give more insight into the behaviour and necessary characteristics of the memory configuration required. This configuration will consist of different layers.

Few sciences have more information problems than medicine. The student has an ever increasing amount to know. Some of them have even complained that they have "so much to remember that they have no time to learn." Once qualified, a doctor finds it increasingly difficult to keep up to date, particularly in clinical pharmacology.

The recent announcement of commercially available high density optical storage devices will have a profound impact on the information processing industry. Just as the initial introduction of random access storage created entirely new processing strategies, optical technology will allow dramatic changes in the storage, retrieval, and dissemination of engineering drawings and other pictorial or text-based documents. Storage Technology Corporation has assumed a leading role in this arena with the introduction of the 7600 Optical Storage Subsystem, and the formation of StorageTek Integrated Systems, a subsidiary chartered to incorporate this new technology into deliverable total systems. This paper explores the impact of optical storage technology from the perspective of a leading-edge manufacturer and integrator.

This paper describes a family of image management systems which require massive archival capabilities. The Multimodal Acquisition, Archive and Review System needs a storage media which can be preserved for legislated time periods of five to ten years, with storage for childrens cases up to 21 years. The Multisensor Acquistion and Processing System (MAPS), which archives Landsat images and the Multimodality Image Management and Enhancement System (MIMES) for image management, processing and archiving require the ability to purge unwanted images and replace them with updated images. Seismic exploration image slice management and astronomic image management also require purging. As a result, the functionality will be dealt with briefly to demonstrate the broad application of the archiving media. The acquisition of images and the utilization of the end result of the processing are differentiating. The archiving needs they hold in common, as well as the subtle differences, will be emphasized. These aspects are: interfaces to network busses and erasable/non-erasable media needs.. The role of interfacing to networks which are highspeed (13-28 Megabytes), those which have standard protocols and moderate speed (Ethernet) and those which support telecommunication will be presented. Data rates and the mediation of double buffering on the interface are addressed. Known error rates for the optical digital data disk and the error correction to the required accuracy for the application will also be discussed.

The Optical Digital Data Disk Study Group was established by the Standards Planning and Requirements Committee (SPARC) of the American National Standards Committee ( AN SC ) X3, Information Processing Systems in November of 1982. The study group was charged with identifying the standards necessary to accomplish data interchange on optical digital data disk. This work was completed in February 1984. As a result of the study group work a new X3 technical committee ANSC/X3B11, Digital Optical Disk was formed and held its organizational meeting in April 1984. The approved projects and proposed projects that will be under development and discussion by the committee are as follows: The approved projects are those concerned with unrecorded media standards for 120mm, 130mm, 200mm, 300mm and 356mm. The proposed standards projects for the committee include the recorded media standards that will complement the unrecorded media standards. Currently the committee is studying standards requirements in the area of labels and formats.

This note describes optical digital data disk ( OD' ) standardization activities in Japan. We organized a study group for OD3 in July 1983 at the Optoelectronic Industry and Technology Development Association. In June 1984 we formed a Technical Committee. In accordance with the Resolutions of the ISO/TC97 Advisory Group, we are preparing the organization as Secretariat of a new Sub-Committee SC23 : OD'. The activities and status of these standardization programs will be presented.

Optical storage of data as a technology has been developed for many years. In the very near future optical storage products will be available in the market place. Optical disk systems vary substantially in disk diameter, recording method, recording material and production technology. Standardization will be necessary if such systems are to be brought into wide use through interchangeability. Standardization in this field was started within ECMA (European Computer Manufacturers Association) 1 in 1983. Within ECMA - Technical Committee TC16 (Rigid Magnetic Disks) a Task Group was formed to investigate the need for OD3 standardization. The findings of this study group led to the start of a new Technical Committee (TC31) on Optical Digital Data Disk Standardization. This TC31 has started recently. The findings of this Task Group in terms of the importance of standards for media interchange, the categories of standards needed, the programme of work and the liaisons with other standardization organizations will be reviewed.

This presentation will describe optical digital data disk (0D3) standardization activities including the NBS-sponsored Federal Council on Computer Storage Standards and Technology (FCCSSAT); the National Bureau of Standards/National Security Agency Workshop on Standardization Issues for OD3 Technology; and the NBS/ICST participation in the voluntary OD³ standards process. All of these NBS/ICST activities provide a forum for discussion among current and potential OD3 users and suppliers, regarding the prospects for OD3 data interchange standardization. The status of these standardization programs will be presented, along with their objectives for determining the directions for the development of OD³-related standards and guidelines for the U.S. government.

The Institute for Computer Sciences and Technology at the National Bureau of Standards (NBS/ICST) is embarking on a research program into the life expectancy properties of optical digital data disks (0D3). This paper discusses lifetime concepts in a general sense and some philosophies and objectives which will underlie the NBS/ICST archival program when it is initiated. Whereas the associated OD3 systems including optical disk drives, servos, lasers, and optics are usually replaceable (providing that they do not fall into the one-of-a-kind category), data contents which are lost due to the OD3 media failure may be irretrievable. Therefore, the principal archival lifetime factors to be investigated by NBS are related primarily to the life expectancies of the OD3 media and media structures. The initial program efforts will be towards determining the system independent degradation and failure mechanisms of the media materials through static optical, chemical, and physical testing. Subsequently, where possible these static test results will be correlated with the results derived from dynamic tests of the system dependent degradation and failure mechanisms of the media. These program activities will serve as the background for the development of a quantitative OD3 lifetime prediction theory and an archival care and handling methodology.

Digital Optical Recorders are suited for mass data logging and storage of text, pictures and other forms of non-moving images. Most of the recorders developed until now, have been designed for computer-room environments. However, a number of applications will require recorders to be used in non-benevolent environments. Hollandse Signaalapparaten B.V. (Signaal) has developed a robust industrial version of the Digital Optical Recorder and aims at the business of complete systems (including DOR as an archival medium) for storage and retrieval of data, images and documents in heavy duty and special professional applications. Because of the system approach, emphasis is put on the development of an intelligent controller for adaptation to a variety of host computers.

The design approaches underway at RCA, as well as the performance parameters being addressed, are described for both argon-laser- and semiconductor-laser-based recorders. These recorders have been under development at RCA since the early 1970's for operationally demanding user requirements that cannot be suitably addressed by any commercially available optical storage system. Current and projected characteristics of the disk media used with these recorders are also described.

Our paper consist of two parts. First, we have demonstrated that the characteristics of a self-coupled optical pickup are remarkably improved by use of a newly-developed so-called incoherent laser diode made by Sharp, Servo signals for focusing are obtained by wobbling method with signal to noise ratio more than 30 dB. Second, we describe a simple real time method for sensitivity measurement of optical storage media utilizing a self-coupling effects of a GaAlAs laser diode. We have shown that we make clear the depend-ences of duration time in writing laser pulses and substrate materials on the sensitivity of a single tellurium film recording material.