BURN-Proof Technology
Anyone who uses a CD writer has made
coasters
,
the common term for a ruined CD-R blank. Although packet writing and
UDF effectively eliminate coasters, packet-writing software is
useless for batch-mode tasks, like duplicating CDs. Those tasks
demand premastering software, which unfortunately is by no means
immune to generating coasters.
Until recently, CD premastering was inherently an isochronous
(time-dependent) process, because data had to be delivered to the
write head in a continuous stream from the time the write began until
it completed. If that stream was interrupted long enough for the data
stored in the writer’s buffer to be
exhausted—an accident called a buffer
underrun
—the blank was ruined. Buffer
underruns were particularly common with IDE/ATAPI CD writers,
although they were by no means rare even on SCSI burners.
We say until recently, because a new technology called
BURN-Proof
(Buffer
UnderRuN-Proof
), developed by Sanyo and licensed to
CD writer makers, effectively makes buffer underruns a thing of the
past. In simple terms, BURN-Proof turns off the writing laser when it
runs out of data to write (duh), and then, when data is again
available, restarts the burn exactly where it left off. In effect,
BURN-Proof converts CD writing from an isochronous process to an
asynchronous one.
BURN-Proof works by constantly monitoring the status of the CD writer’s buffer to detect a potential buffer underrun condition. If the amount of buffered data falls ...
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