The World on a Silver Platter

By Philip Elmer-DeWitt

At first glance, the union of the personal computer and the compact disc would seem to be a perfect match. The same CD that holds an hour of Mendelssohn or Madonna can be used to store more information than a thousand floppy disks. But the coupling of the two technologies has been stalled by a kind of Catch-22. Computer owners will not buy the special disk drives required to play CDs on their desktop machines until they know there is something worth playing. And software publishers are reluctant to develop new CD programs until there are enough disk drives in place to justify the investment.

Now there are encouraging signs on both fronts. In the past year, the library of commercially available CD computer programs has doubled, from 150 to more than 300, and the number is expected to double again by the end of the year. Meanwhile, the market for CD players has received a boost from two of the computer industry's leading manufacturers. Last month Tandy announced that it would begin selling a $995 computer CD player at many of its 7,000 Radio Shack stores. Apple has introduced a $1,195 CD drive that not only plugs into its Macintosh and Apple II computers but also can be hooked up to a stereo to play music CDs.

A computer CD, known in the industry as a CD ROM (for "read only memory"), is just 4.72 in. in diameter but can store as much information as a stack of typewritten pages nine stories high. Dozens of reference books, from Grolier's Academic American Encyclopedia to Roget's Thesaurus, have appeared in CD form, and many more are on the way.

The newest discs take advantage of the medium's vast capacity for storing pictures and sounds as well as words. LaserScan Systems of Miami sells a CD that displays maps showing the location of 520,000 real estate properties in Broward County, Fla. British Airways has put the entire maintenance manual for a Boeing 757 on CD, so its repair people can find the illustration of a missing part with a few taps on a keyboard. Soon, travel agents who use American Airlines' SABRE reservation system will be able to show customers photographs of vacation spots and hotel rooms on the same screens that display flight information and fares.

Still more variations of CD technology are on the way. Two giants of consumer electronics, Sony and Philips, are getting ready to unveil a CD device that comes with a built-in computer and can be hooked up to a TV set. A hand-held controller allows users to interact with the images on the screen. ! Sony and Philips, which call their new system CD-Interactive, hope it will be as big a hit as the music CD player. Philips conducted the first public demonstration of CD-I last month, and industry sources say the system could be ready for delivery as early as next year.

With reporting by Charles Pelton/Seattle