Development of a Testing Methodology to Predict Optical Disk Life ExpectancyValues

摘要

There are no standards for longevity of optical disks that can assist managers inthe Federal government to select the right media for the storage of permanent records, and to know how long the information may be safely stored on those disks. The report focuses on research undertaken at the National Institute of Standards and Technology to develop a methodology to predict optical disk life expectancy values. In the research accelerated aging tests were run on small sets of disks and the quality parameter (the byte error rate) was periodically measured between aging cycles. The tests were used with a mathematical prediction model to develop a testing methodology. The report presents the results obtained. The need for standard test methods for predicting life expectancy and for measuring media characteristics is apparent. Life expectancy extrapolations derived from the experiments produced a range of values depending upon the method used for deriving the quality parameter. Recommendations are made about the implementation of a testing methodology for life expectancy predictions, and what information to include in a life expectancy specification.