Status of optical disk (OD) technology for storage of seismic, geologic, and other information

Conference · Fri May 01 04:00:00 EDT 1987 · AAPG Bull.; (United States)

OSTI ID:6443716

Clark, C; Prahl, G E

Advancements in the technology required for transcribing data from magnetic tape and the rapid optical scanning of written materials with subsequent recording by laser onto optical disk have been great. Energy Laser Storage, Inc. (ELSI), has developed systems for transcribing magnetic tapes containing seismic data and their associated documentation along with other data and geologic information onto OD storage. Advantages of this cost-effective conversion are (1) reduction of required storage volume; (2) elimination of required temperature- and humidity-controlled storage; (3) ruggedness and permanence of the OD storage medium; (4) access time to data greatly reduced; (5) transferability of materials, data, maps, etc, between offices in a streamlined, confidential manner; and (6) capital equipment utilized for systems is less expensive than mainframe computers and peripherals. The systems are compact and come in two distinct configurations: one for tape/optical disk copying and one for paper or film/optical disk transcription. The tape/optical disk system is comprised of a single tape drive with multiple density read/write capability. The paper or film/optical disk system consists of a scanner which can scan documents as wide as 42 in. Both systems are configured around a high-speed IBM-PC/AT central processor and have a single optical disk drive. A laser printer is used for output when reproducing documents from OD. The time has come for the miniaturization of their massive accumulations of data. Exact duplicates of the originals can be available in a few seconds even in remote locations by using ODs, and the unnecessary costs of wasted time, magnetic taps, and paper/films can now be minimized.

• Research Organization: First Seismic Corp., Denver, CO
• OSTI ID: 6443716
• Report Number(s): CONF-870606-
• Conference Information: Journal Name: AAPG Bull.; (United States) Journal Volume: 71:5
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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