The Rock Ridge Group, a consortium of 16 companies, including DEC, Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems, Santa Cruz Operation and Silicon Graphics, has submitted two new preliminary CD-ROM specifications – System Use Sharing Protocol, or SUSP, and the Rock Ridge Interchange Protocol Specification, or RRIP – to the US National Institute of Standards and Technology. These specifications concern the distribution of data and software on CD-ROM media, and extend and are compliant with the current international standard format for CD-ROM – the ISO 9660-1988. CD-ROM media, says the Rock Ridge consortium, can significantly reduce cost and improve software installation and ease of use. The new specifications have been submitted for review and consideration in developing a Federal Information Processing Standard for CD-ROM technology. The National Institute of Standards and Technology develops these standards for use by US federal agencies in the acquisition and management of computer and telecommunication systems. The System Use Sharing Protocol extension to the ISO 9660 standard enables multiple file system extensions to co-exist on one CD-ROM disk – the existing ISO standard allows for this, but doesn’t define a mechanism. The Rock Ridge Interchange Protocol specification, which is built on top of the System Use Sharing Protocol extension, enables Posix files and directories be recorded on CD-ROM without requiring modifications to files, such as shortening file and directory names. The Rock Ridge Interchange Protocol facilitates execution of Unix applications directly from CD-ROM without copying them on the hard disk and using disk space.
