Burning CDR's on an ATARI ST

[Guy Sotomayor]

On Jan 25, 2009, at 9:31 PM, Michael wrote:

> I've got some Atari 520's laying around and was wondering what it  
> would take
> to burn cdr's with them.  I've seen ACSI to SCSI adapters (I'm  
> assuming this
> is necessary).  Assuming I hook up a SCSI CDRW to this what software  
> would I
> need to burn disks.

It depends upon what type of CD you're trying to burn.  The CD format  
(low level...I'm not talking about ISO9660) is fairly complex (session  
format, power lead in area, Reed-Soloman codes, etc).  You also have  
to be able to maintain a minimum transfer rate or else you'll just end  
up making "coasters".

An excellent primer on the subject is: http://www.mrichter.com/cdr/primer/primer.htm 
.  Note that the section on "Bits as they are recorded" contains part  
of an article I wrote on the subject in a long forgotten usenet group.

Another good place for information is: http://www.cdrfaq.org.  It  
contains a lot more detail than the primer.  And yes, to answer the  
question, I've written code to do all of the "weird" math (Galios  
fields) necessary for doing low level CD stuff.

If you really want to write software for this you'll have to spend $ 
$'s and get *all* of the necessary specifications.  Also expect to  
brush up on Error Coding (math) - you won't be able to create the ECC  
without it.

This of course assumes that you want to do something other than create  
just data CDs.  The drive handles most of that itself (but you still  
need to understand the basics).

TTFN - Guy