Level 2 Optical Storage

The minimum performance optical storage device is a double-speed CD-ROM drive that meets the following criteria:

• A sustained data transfer rate of 300 kilobytes per second
• A CPU bandwidth usage of 40 percent or less when maintaining a sustained data transfer rate of 150 kilobytes per second, or a CPU bandwidth of 60 percent or less when maintaining a sustained data transfer rate of 300 kilobytes per second
• An average seek time of 400 milliseconds or less
• A 10,000 hour mean-time-between-failures rating
• CD-ROM XA ready (mode 1 capable, mode 2 form 1 capable, mode form 2 capable)
• Multisession capable
• MSCDEX-2.2 driver or equivalent that implements the extended audio functions

The recommended CPU bandwidth should be reached by using a read-block size of at least 16K and a lead time of no more than the time needed to load one read-block of data into the CD-ROM buffer.