Optical recording systems capable of information storage and retrieval, using a highly focused laser beam as the recording and playback source, have been developed to a point where product introduction in the 1983-1985 time frame is highly probable. The product protentials range from low-data-rate (10-20 Mbits/s), single disk (10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">10</sup> to 10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">11</sup> bits), random-access electronic office filing cabinets (augmenting existing word processing units) to high-date-rate (hundreds of megabits per second), multidisk (10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">13</sup> bits on line "jukeboxes"), random-acess archival mass memories. This article presents the basic features of these optical disk data storage and retrieval systems with particular emphasis on the recording source and recording media.