CD-ROM/XA


Short for CD-ROM/eXtended Architecture, a specification developed by Sony, Phillips and Microsoft that enables many different types of data — audio, video, compressed video, and graphics — to be stored on a single CD-ROM.

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  • CD-ROM player

    Also called a CD-ROM drive, a device that can read information from a CD-ROM. CD-ROM players can be either internal, in which case they fit in a bay, or external, in which case they generally connect to the computer’s SCSI interface or parallel port. Parallel CD-ROM players are easier to install, but they have several […]

  • CD-RW

    See CD-RW disk.

  • CD-RW Disk

    Short for CD-ReWritable disk, a type of CD disk that enables you to write onto it in multiple sessions. One of the problems with CD-R disks is that you can only write to them once. With CD-RW drives and disks, you can treat the optical disk just like a floppy or hard disk, writing data […]

  • CD-R drive

    Short for Compact Disk-Recordable drive, a type of disk drive that can create CD-ROMs and audio CDs. This allows users to “master” a CD-ROM or audio CD for publishing. Until recently, CD-R drives were quite expensive, but prices have dropped dramatically. A feature of many CD-R drives, called multisession recording, enables you to keep adding […]

  • CD+G

    Short for Compact disc plus graphics. CD+G is an audio compact disc that contains graphics data in addition to audio data. These CDs can be played on a regular audio player but when played on a CD+G player, it outputs a graphics signal as well. This allows video pictures to be displayed as music is […]


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