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<hardware> (Or "optical disc drive", "optical storage") A generic term for any device that reads and/or writes optical media, i.e. compact discs, DVDs and/or Blu-ray discs or future media that uses light (from a small laser) to read data off a removable, rotating disk.
At least one such drive is commonly installed in most personal computers to allow them to play and/or record audio and video media and load and store data such as program installers.
The floppy disk has been replaced by optical media due to its vastly greater capacity, e.g. 50,000 megabytes for a dual-layer blu-ray disc compared with 1.5 megabytes for a floppy (over 30,000 times as much).
(2014-04-27)
Nearby terms: optical computing « optical diff « optical disc drive « optical disk drive » optical drive » optical fiber » optical fibre
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