TOSLINK
TOSLINK is a standardized optical fibre connection system. It's
most common use is in consumer audio equipment, which carries digital
audio streams between components such as MiniDisc and CD players. It uses inexpensive 1mm plastic optical fiber allowing low cost production, yet often sells for more than copper-based cabling, perhaps
because of the "cool factor" of using newer fibre technology.
TOSLINK was originally created by Toshiba to connect their CD players to their
radio receivers, but it was soon found on almost all CD players,
regardless of manufacturer. Today the TOSLINK mechanicals are usually employed to send digital audio stream to MiniDisc
recorders. Early TOSLINK systems used raw data from the CD player, but S/PDIF standard
has now become fairly universal for audio streams. It can also be found on DVD players to connect the digital audio stream to
Dolby Digital/DTS decoders.
TOSLINK has many applications, using several different connector types. But audio connections using the JIS F05 connector are
by far the most common.
TOSLINK is a registered trademark of Toshiba corporation. Variations of the name are often seen, such as TOSlink, TosLink, and Tos-link. The generic
name for the standard is EIAJ optical.
External Links
-This article has been brought to you by BambooWeb and Wikipedia-
