My CD-RW is Marked "12x10x32x." What Does That Mean?

These are the rotational speed measurements for recording write-once CDs (CD-R), rewriteable CDs (CD-RW), and reading CDs.

Note that one can almost never actually write a CD-ROM at full speed, because that requires a perfect stream of data with no interruptions. We have found that users must generally record at lower speeds, or risk write errors which will "ruin" a CD-R disc.

May 2001

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