It's Getting Easier to Integrate Multiple CDs

Salvatore Salamone

The integration of CD-ROM jukeboxes (i.e., changers) and towers on a network is becoming more seamless, thanks to new hardware and software products for LAN administrators. Companies often have multiple electronic reference libraries on CD-ROMs that users must have access to, according to Patty Chang, principal analyst in the computer systems and peripherals group at Dataquest (San Jose, CA). ``Research groups frequently use many databases,'' says Chang. ``Some of which the entire company might use, while other [discs] might be needed for only a handful of people.''

One way to handle these different needs when it comes to accessing CDs is to swap discs in and out of a single drive. A more efficient approach is to use a CD-RO M drive that accommodates multiple CDs. However, integrating a CD changer onto a network is not always straightforward.

Products such as MacProducts USA's Magic CD 6 Quadraspin and Pioneer's DRM-602X offer a six-drive unit with a device driver that identifies multiple CDs in the unit's changer through different drive letters (see ``Fast Access to Multiple CDs,'' September 1994 BYTE, page 182). But when you remove a specific library from one slot and place it in another, an application may not be able to find the CD. That's because the cartridge slots are mapped to separate network or user drives. When this happens, someone has to return the CDs to their correct slots or remap the drives to run a particular application. This exercise in CD-ROM swapping can annoy and frustrate users.

Both hardware and software vendors have devised solutions to this problem. Mountain Network Solutions' (Scotts Valley, CA, (408) 438-6650) double-speed CD7 Minichanger (it will sell on the street for about $499), whic h accommodates seven CDs, virtualizes all the CDs into one drive, thus eliminating the need to remap drives to specific applications. When you request a program or data on a CD, the drive looks for the CD with the particular application and loads it. The CD7 Mini-changer lets you pop out a CD in the drive while still letting users access the remaining CDs. This makes accessing frequently used databases, as well as the occasionally needed CD, easier for most users.

Smart Storage (Andover, MA, (508) 623-3300) took a similar but more ambitious approach by providing single-drive-letter access to multiple CD-ROM drives and jukeboxes. Smart Storage already sells SmartCD, a program for PC networks or NFS (Network File System) clients that provides application- and device-independent access to CD-ROM drives, jukeboxes, and towers. The company plans to introduce two new programs in the first quarter: Smart CD Library for networks and Smart CD Manager for stand-alone PCs (the pricing of these programs was undete rmined at press time). In addition to virtualizing CDs into one drive letter, both products will present users with a friendly DOS or Windows interface for selecting a CD-ROM application to run from a pool of CDs.