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The CD player has the job of finding and reading the data stored an bumps on the CD. Because the bumps are so small, the CD player is an exceptionally precise piece of equipment. The drive consists of 3 fundamental components:
. A drive motor to spin the disk
. A laser and a lens system to focus in on the bumps and read them
. A tracking mechanism that can move the laser to follow the spiral track
Inside the CD player there is also a good bit of computer technology to form the data into understandable data blocks and send them to the DAC.
The laser beam passes through the polycarbonate layer, reflects off the aluminium layer and returns to an opto-electronic device. The opto-electronic device detects the changes in light that the bumps make to the laser. The hard part is keeping the laser beam centered on the data track. This centering is the job of the tracking system.
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