See also http://www.dvdrhelp.com/glossary.

ASPI
     See Win32 ASPI

ATA

     Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA). The same things as IDE.

ATAPI

     Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA) Packet Interface. The interface provides a mechanism for transferring and executing SCSI CDBs on IDE CD Drives and DVD Drives.

     IDE (also called ATA) was originally designed for hard drives only, but with help of ATAPI it is possible to connect other devices, in particular CD-ROMS to the IDE/EIDE connections.

     The ATAPI CD-ROM drives understand a subset of MMC commands. In particular multi-initiator commands are neither needed nor deviced for ATAPI devices.

BIN/CUE

     A CD-image format developed by Jeff Arnold for CDRWIN software on Microsoft Windows. Many other programs subsequently support using this format. The .CUE file is a text file which contains CD format and track layout information, while the .BIN file holds the actual data of each track.

CD
     Compact Disc

CD-DA
     Compact Disc Digital Audio, described in the ``Red Book'' or ICE 908. This commonly referred to as an audio CD and what most people think of when you play a CD as it was the first to use the CD medium.

CD+G

     Compact Disc + Graphics. An extension of the CD audio format contains a limited amount of graphics in subcode channels. This disc works in all audio players but the graphics portion is only available in a special CD+G or Karaoke player.

CD-i

     Compact Disc Interactive. An extension of the CD format designed around a set-top computer that connects to a TV to provide interactive home entertainment, including digital audio and video, video games, and software applications. Defined by the ``Green Book'' standard. http://www.icdia.org/. CD-i for video and video music has largely (if not totally) been superceded by VCDs.

CD-i Bridge

     A standard allowing CD-ROM XA discs to play on CD-i.  Kodak PhotoCDs are CD-XA Bridge discs.

CD-ROM

     Compact Disc Read Only Memory or ``Yellow Book'' describe in Standards ISO/IEC 10149. The data stored on it can be either in the form of audio, computer or video files.

CD-ROM Mode 1 and Mode2

     The Yellow Book specifies two types of tracks, Mode 1 and Mode 2. Mode 1 is used for computer data and text and has an extra error correction layer. Mode 2 is for audio and video data and has no extra correction layer. CD-ROM/XA An expansion of the CD-ROM Mode 2 format that allows both computer and audio/video to be mixed in the same track.

CD Text

     CD Text is a technology developed by Sony Corporation and Philips Electronics in 1996 that allows storing in an audio CD and its tracks information such as artist name, title, songwriter, composer, or arranger. Commercially available audio CDs sometimes contain CD Text information.

CD XA

     CD-ROM EXtended Architecture. A modification to the CD-ROM specification that defines two new types of sectors.  CD-ROM XA was developed jointly by Sony, Philips, and Microsoft, and announced in August 1988. Its specifications were published in an extension to the Yellow Book.  CD-i, Photo CD, Video CD and CD-EXTRA have all subsequently been based on CD-ROM XA.

     CD-XA defines another way of formatting sectors on a CD-ROM, including headers in the sectors that describe the type (audio, video, data) and some additional info (markers, resolution in case of a video or audio sector, file numbers, etc).

     The data written on a CD-XA is consistent with and can be in ISO-9660 file system format and therefore be readable by ISO-9660 file system translators. But also a CD-I player can also read CD-XA discs even if its own `Green Book' file system only resembles ISO 9660 and isn't fully compatible.

Command Packet

     The data structure that is used to issue an ATAPI command. The same thing as a SCSI Command Descriptor Block (CDB).

FSF

     Free Software Foundation, http://www.fsf.org/

GNU

     GNU is not UNIX, http://www.gnu.org/

IDE

     Integrated Drive Electronics. This is a commonly used interface for hard disk drives and CD-ROM drives. It is less expensive than SCSI, but offers slightly less in terms of performance.

ISO

     International Standards Organization.

ISO 9660

     The ISO 9660 is an operating-system independent filesystem format for CD-ROM media and DVD-ROMs. It was standardized in 1988 and replaced the High Sierra standard for the logical format on CD-ROM media (ISO 9660 and High Sierra are identical in content, but the exact format is different).

     There are several specification levels. In Level 1, file names must be in the 8.3 format (no more than eight characters in the name, no more than three characters in the suffix) and in capital letters. Directory names can be no longer than eight characters. There can be no more than eight nested directory levels. Level 2 and 3 specifications allow file names up to 32 characters long.

     ECMA-119 (http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-119.htm is the European specification which is identical to ISO 9660. ISO 13490 is basically ISO 9660 with multisession support.

Joliet extensions

     This ISO-9660 upward-compatible standard was developed for Windows 95 and Windows NT by Microsoft as an extension of ISO 9600 which allows the use of Unicode characters and supports file names up to 64 characters.

     See http://bmrc.berkeley.edu/people/chaffee/jolspec.html for the Joliet Specification.

     The name Joliet comes from the city in Illinois (U.S) that the standard was defined.

LBA

     Logical Block Addressing. Mapped integer numbers from CD Red Book Addressing MSF.  The starting sector is -150 and ending sector is 449849, which correlates directly to MSF: 00:00:00 to 99:59:74. Because an LBA is a single number it is often easier to work with in programming than an MSF.

Lead in

     The area of a CD where the Table Of Contents (TOC) and CD Text are stored.  I think it is supposed to be around 4500 (1 min) or more sectors in length.  On a CDR(W) the lead-in length is variable, because each manufacturer will have a different starting position indicated by the ATIP start of lead-in position that is recorded in the ATIP groove on the disk.

LSN

     Logical Sector Number. Mapped integer numbers from CD Red Book Addressing MSF.  The starting sector is 0 and ending sector is 449699, which correlates to MSF: 00:00:00 to 99:59:74.  Because an LSN is a single number it is often easier to work with in programming than an MSF. Because it starts at 0 rather than -150 as is the case of an LBA it can be represented as an unsigned value.

MCN

     Media Catalog Number. A identification number on an audio CD.  Also called a UPC. Another identification number is ISRC.

MMC

     MMC (Multimedia Commands). A SCSI programming specification made by the SCSI committee T10 organization http://www.t10.org/.  MMC are raw commands for communicating with CDROM drives, CD-Rewriters, DVD-Rewriters, etc.

     Many manufacturers have adopted this standard and it also applies to ATAPI versions of their drives.

Mixed Mode CD

     A Mixed Mode is a CD that contains tracks of differing CD-ROM Mode formats. In particular the first track may contain both computer data (Yellow Book) CD ROM data while the remaining tracks are audio or video data. Video CD's can be Mixed Mode CDs.

Multisession

     A way of writing to a CD that allows more data to be added to readable discs at a later time.

Nero NRG format file

     A proprietary CD image file format use by a popular program for Microsoft Windows, Ahead Nero. The specification of this format is not to our knowlege published.

Rock Ridge Extensions

     An extension to the ISO-9660 standard which adds POSIX information to files.

SCSI

     Small Computer System Interface.  A set of ANSI standard electronic interfaces (originally developed at Apple Computer) that allow personal computers to communicate with peripheral hardware such as CD-ROM drives, disk drives, printers, etc.

SCSI CDB

     SCSI Command Descriptor Block. The data structure that is used to issue a SCSI command.

SCSI Pass Through Interface.

     Yet another way of issuing MMC commands for accessing a CD-ROM. As with MMC or ASPI, the CD-ROM doesn't necessarily have to be a SCSI-attached drive. See also MMC and ASPI.

Session

     A fully readable complete recording that contains one or more tracks of computer data or audio on a CD.

SVCD

     Super VCD

     An improvement of Video CD 2.0 specification which includes most notably a switch from MPEG-1 (constant bit rate encoding) to MPEG-2 (variable bit rate encoding) for the video stream.

     Also added was higher video-stream resolution, up to 4 overlay graphics and text (OGT) sub-channels for user switchable subtitle displaying, closed caption text, and command lists for controlling the SVCD virtual machine.

     See http://www.dvdrhelp.com/svcd

TOC

     (Compact Disc) Table of Contents. The TOC contains the starting track number, last track number individual track starting time, and some track flags (copy protection, linear audio preemphasis, track format: CDDA or data).  Every CD must have at least 1 TOC, the first TOC is always recorded at the start of the CD (lead-in area).  A multi-session CD may have several TOCs.

Track

     A unit of data of a CD. The size of a track can vary; it can occupy the entire contents of the CD. Most CD standards however require that tracks have a 150 frame (or ``2 second'') lead-in gap.

VCD

     The Video Compact Disc (Video CD or VCD) is a standardized digital video storage format. It is based on the commonly available Compact Disc technology, which allows for low-cost video authoring. Video CD's can be played in most DVD standalone player, dedicated VCD players and finally, modern Personal Computers with multimedia support.

     A Video CD is made up of CD-ROM XA sectors, i.e. CD-ROM mode 2 form 1 & 2 sectors. Non-MPEG data is stored in mode 2 form 1 sectors with a user data area of 2048 byte, which have a similiar L2 error correction and detection (ECC/EDC) to CD-ROM mode 1 sectors. While realtime MPEG streams is stored in CD-ROM mode 2 form 2 sectors, which by have no L2 ECC, yield a ~14% greater user data area consisting of 2324 bytes (actually raw mode 2 sectors have a 2336 byte user data area, but parts of it are used for error codes and headers when using the mode 2 form 1 or form 2 configurations.)

     http://www.dvdrhelp.com/vcd

Win32 ASPI

     The ASPI interface specification was developed by Adaptec for sending commands to a SCSI host adapter (such as those controlling CD and DVD drives) and used on Window 9x/NT and later. Emulation for ATAPI drives was added so that the same sets of commands worked those even though the drives might not be SCSI nor might there even be a SCSI controller attached.

     However in Windows NT/2K/XP, Microsoft provides their Win32 ioctl interface, and has take steps to make using ASPI more inaccessible (e.g. requiring adminstrative access to use ASPI).

     See also MMC

Win32 ioctl driver

     Ioctl (Input Output ConTroLs). A Win32 function, implemented in all Microsoft Windows.  It is used for sending commands to devices using defined codes and structures.

XA

     See CD-ROM XA