Refer to data storage cartridges that are much faster than present CD-ROM alternatives for storing computer games, audio, and video files. The outlook for CD-ROM in the long haul is not so rosy. Billups (1994) , p. 100 predicts the following:
As a lingering vestigial remnant of the mechanical age, the CD-ROM has no place in a fully digital communications environment and is no doubt destined to the same scrap heap as the eight-track. The new Nintendo/Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI) media environment, for instance, uses a silicon cartridge that is two million times faster than CD-ROM. The storage capacity of this new environment has doubled in the last two months and the price unit has dropped more than half. By the time it hits the market it will set a new standard overnight.
In our viewpoint, however, the CD-ROM will remain the standard until better alternatives can be recorded as simply and as cheaply in homes and offices as CD-ROM discs can now be mastered (burned) for less than $20 per disc on desktop recorders costing less than $3,000. (See also Games )