Overview
ISO/IEC 13963:1995 specifies the characteristics and interchange requirements for 90 mm optical disk cartridges (ODC) with a capacity of 230 megabytes per cartridge. The standard defines three media implementations - Type R/W (fully rewritable), Type P-ROM (partially embossed/read-only areas) and Type O-ROM (fully embossed/read-only) - and describes the mechanical, optical, logical and test requirements needed to ensure reliable data interchange between optical disk drives and data processing systems.
Key Topics and Requirements
- Media types and capacity: Definitions and conformance criteria for Type R/W, P-ROM and O-ROM 90 mm ODCs (230 MB).
- Mechanical and physical characteristics: Case and disk dimensions, hub and clamping details, shutter, mis-insert protection and environmental limits for operation, storage and transport.
- Reference drive & interfaces: Specification of a Reference Drive (optical system, read channels, tracking, rotation) to standardize reading/writing behavior across devices.
- Format of information: Track geometry, physical and logical track layout, sector and field formats, sector numbering, clocking and sync fields.
- Error handling and coding: Use of error detection (CRC) and error correction (ECC, Reed–Solomon) methods, interleaving and resync strategies for robust data integrity.
- Defect management: Initialization, certification, Primary and Secondary Defect Lists (PDL/SDL), spare sector handling and replacement strategies to manage bad media areas.
- Recording and magneto‑optical characteristics: Read/write/erase power and pulse conditions, Kerr rotation, signal-to-noise and cross‑talk requirements for magneto-optical recording.
- Embossed information: Requirements and test methods for sectors pre-embossed (P-ROM/O-ROM) and signal characteristics from embossed features.
- Testing and conformance: Environmental and signal test methods, annexes covering edge distortion, track deviation, read/write power measurement and other mandatory tests.
Applications and Who Uses It
ISO/IEC 13963 is primarily used by:
- Optical drive manufacturers (to build drives that interoperate with 90 mm ODC media),
- Media suppliers (to produce compliant cartridges and control embossing/recording layers),
- System integrators and OEMs (for removable backup and archival solutions),
- Test laboratories and certification bodies (for conformance testing against the Reference Drive and signal requirements),
- Organizations maintaining legacy magneto‑optical storage needing standardized interchange formats.
Typical applications include removable data backup, archival storage, software/media distribution and cross‑platform data interchange where magneto‑optical durability and standardization are required.
Related Standards
- ECMA-201 (origin of the specification)
- ISO/IEC 10090 (90 mm ODC series reference)
- IEC 950 (safety of information technology equipment - normative reference)
Keywords: ISO/IEC 13963, 90 mm optical disk cartridges, 230 MB ODC, magneto‑optical media, P-ROM, O-ROM, R/W, data interchange, defect management, ECC, CRC, Reference Drive.