Optical drive

Rise and fall of ISO 9660

1989 - 1990: ISO 9660 Optical drives first reach the consumer market

High End System: 33MHz 386 or any 486 computer / 4MB RAM / 80MB HD
1x cd-rom drive with a proprietary controller at a ~$500 price point
Each vendor had their own interface (Mitsubishi / Mitsumi / Sony / Panasonic / Philips )
Most CD-Rom drives used caddies to load disks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxt5A0KJ9nw

1991 - 1992: Microsoft sets MPC1 standards

High End System: 50Mhz 486DX CPU w/ Local Bus / 8MB RAM / 200MB HD
2x CD Rom Drives (Twice as Fast!!)
IDE & SCSI CDROM interfaces begin to replace proprietary interfaces
Most new soundcards contain an IDE or SCSI interface for attaching an Optical drive
Affordable tray based drives ("The Cup holder") become more common

1993 - 1994: MPC Level 2 Standard

High End System: 486 >= 100Mhz / Socket 4 & 5 Pentium / 16MB RAM / 500MB HD
3x & 4x IDE & SCSI CDROM drives arrive at ~$500 price point.
Expensive 1x & 2x CD-R burners were available at prices near $1000, still takes over 30 minutes to burn a 650MB disk

1995 - 1996: MPC Level 3 Standard

High End System: Socket 7 / Socket 8 / 32MB RAM / 2 GB HD
6x to 12x IDE CD ROM appear, still using CLV (Constant Linear Velocity)
Fastest drives enter at the $400 price point, low end drives available for $100
IDE drives with higher speeds tend to arrive sooner and the prices fall faster
"El Torito" extension to ISO 9660 provides for bootable CD-Roms
"Joliet" extension to ISO 9660 allow long unicode filenames
4x CD-R drives become affordable and can burn a full disk in less than 20 minutes, but buffer underruns are a common occurrence if you try to multitask with an IDE burner
CD-RW drive appear priced at > $500
Slot Loading CR-Roms appear

1997 - 1999: CAV Drives and DVD-ROMs

High End System: Slot 1 / Super Socket 7 / 64MB RAM / 20GB HD
Optical drives are a standard feature on new PC builds, no longer a specialty item.
CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) CDROM drives appear with 16x speeds and quickly ramp up to 72x. They were often quite loud. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNY4DFhf6xM
ATA Packet Interface (ATAPI) becomes official, adding removable media features to the ATA protocol
1x & 2x DVD-ROM appear
CD-ROM prices drop to $50 for a low end drive, $120 for 2x CD-R and $250 for an 8x CD-R burner
DVD-ROM (Up to 10x ) appear, quickly dropping in price to less than $400
DVD-RW (Versions < 1.2) appear near the end of this period

2000 - 2004: Writeable DVDs mature

Computers: Socket 370, 423, 478, 462, 754 w/ 1-2GB RAM & 120GB HD
DVD-ROM drives replace CD-ROMS as the most common optical drive on a new computer
DVD-ROM speeds pass 10x
DVD-RW Version 1.2 appears as the standard matures
DVD+R / DVD+RW appear
DVD drives become commodity items with prices well below $100
Optical drives replace floppy drives as the primary boot media for installing operating systems

2005 - 2009: Commodity Optical Drives

Computers: Early 64bit chips w/ 2-4GB RAM & 500GB HD
Early Sata optical drives appear that use Pata chipsets with a Sata bridge on the controller, not ideal performance
True Sata Super Multi DVD drives with 20x speeds soon replace PATA drives and bridged controllers
Most DVD writers support all common +/- formats
BD-ROM drives exist and are affordable, but never become common
M-Disc media for archives that last for more than a few years
Super Multi DVD drives sell for less than $40, DVD-RW less than $60
CD-Music sales plummet (https://www.statista.com/chart/12950/cd-sales-in-the-us/ )

2010 - 2016: The Decline

Computers: Age of I3, I5, I7 CPUs with 8GB RAM, Sata SSD & 1TB HD
New computers still sold with optical drives, but were no longer necessary in many cases
Affordable large USB drives replace optical drives for operating system installation
Download services surpass physical media for software distribution
DVD & BluRay Video sales plummet ( https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/04/dvd-and-blu-ray-sales-nearly-halved-over-five-years-mpaa-report-says/)

2017 --> : Obsolescence

Computers: Tablets and thin light laptops with NVME SSD & Cloud storage
Ain't no space in a tiny computer for the optical drive
Vendors drop optical drives to reduce price on Low and Midrange desktops
High end desktops still have optical drives for compatibility purposes, but optical drives become a niche product

Device	Bus type	Bus version	Bus speed	CD read	CD read	CD-R	CD-R	CD-RW	DVD	Transport	Discs	Line out	SPDIF
Matsushita CW-7503	SCSI	SCSI-2	10 MHz	20 x	3 MB/s 20 x	8 x	1.2 MB/s 8 x	0 x	0 x	Tray	1		None