optical disk

American  

noun

Computers, Television.

1. Also called laser disk.  Also optical disc a grooveless disk on which digital data, as text, music, or pictures, is stored as tiny pits in the surface and is read or replayed by a laser beam scanning the surface.

2. videodisk.

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optical disk Scientific  

1. A plastic-coated disk that stores digital data, such as music or text, as tiny pits on its surface. The disc is rotated rapidly, and a laser is reflected off the disc to an optical sensor, which is sampled periodically. If the laser strikes the flat area between pits, the sensor picks up the reflection and registers the digital value 1. If the laser strikes one of the pits, it is deflected from the sensor, and the sample value is a digital 0.

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Example Sentences

The main advantage will be that hundreds of digital images can be stored on an optical disk and sorted in a flash.

From Time Magazine Archive

When the defendants requested access to it, they were refused access on the grounds that there was classified data on the optical disk.

From Underground by Dreyfus, Suelette

AM has recycled a fair amount of the work done by LC's Prints and Photographs Division during the Library's optical disk pilot project in the 1980s.

From Library of Congress Workshop on Etexts by Library of Congress

Recalling the day's demonstrations of CD-ROM and optical disk material, he went on to ask if the field has yet learned how to scale new systems to enable delivery and dissemination across large-scale networks.

From Library of Congress Workshop on Etexts by Library of Congress