Seamless Link; Over-the-top technology that puts an end to buffer underrun errors

Buffer underrun errors have plagued CD-RW drives from the very beginning. This February, Acer Communications & Multimedia (Acer CM) announced "Seamless Link"— the most elegant solution to the bane of every CD burner's existence. This advanced technology allows a CD-RW drive to automatically monitor the recording status to prevent buffer underrun from occurring. With its introduction of Seamless Link, Acer CM becomes the third company in the world to offer such technology.

The traditional solution for buffer underrun was to enlarge the size of the buffer to allow it to accumulate more data. While this tactic helped reduce the frequency of underruns, once an error occurred, there was no way to save the address of the exact point where the underrun had occurred, so the user had no choice but to toss out the now-useless disc and try burning another.

Acer CM's Seamless Link is a breakthrough that allows the CD-RW drive to store the RecEnd address, the point in the data to which the recording mechanism has progressed, and pause the recording before a buffer underrun occurs. When the buffer is again full, a Seamless Link-enabled CD-RW drive locates the RecEnd address and resumes the recording process. The gap between the stop and restart point is closed, while managing the recording process precisely and transparently—eliminating underrun errors while maintaining recording accuracy. Seamless Link is also built in the latest Acer CD-ReWriter—the CRW1208A.

Seamless Link works its magic by following these steps:

Monitor the amount of buffered data during the recording process.
Stop the recording process and store the RecEnd address if there is any problem that causes the amount of data in the buffer to fall below a certain level.
Hold in a pause state and allow new data to fill the buffer memory.
Scan from a point ahead of the actual RecEnd address and locate the exact RecEnd point.
Re-start the recording process.