A CD-ROM for all platforms
Creative Digital and DynaTek Automation offer a solution that enables the creation of a CD-ROM that can run on PC, Macintosh, and Unix systems.
Currently, developers who want to deliver information on a CD-ROM to run on different operating systems--such as Windows and Macintosh--have two alternatives. They can use separate discs, which adds to the cost of production. They can also create a hybrid disc that stores data differently for each platform, but this reduces the amount of space available by recording the same data in more than one place.
Creative Digital avoids these problems by using a special CD-ROM format called HyCD that can record PC, Macintosh, and Unix formats onto a single CD-ROM. Creative Digital says the CD-ROMs are accessible in the native environments of Macintosh, Unix, and Windows 95 systems even though the data is shared, not duplicated, in each standard.
Creative Digital will be bundling its HyCD Multimedia premastering software with DynaTek's CDM 4000 mastering system. The CDM 4000 is a Unix-based production system that contains a 4X CD-ROM recorder and 4X reader, a 1GB hard disk drive, and a controller for uninterrupted data transfer to the disc. The software will also be offered with DynaTek's CDM 400, a 4X CD-R system.
No pricing information was announced.