One notable change is the gradual disappearance of optical drives from modern computers. Gone are the days when CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray discs were the primary means of data storage and software installation. VIDIA's older Jetson developer modules are now being phased out as memory shortages spread beyond normal PC parts. The affected boards use LPDDR4 memory, which has become harder to source and more expensive as the wider DRAM market stays under pressure. Jetson modules are small embedded computers. The optical module industry is at a critical inflection point. The emergence of USB flash drives and mobile hard drives have become more popular data carrying options due to their advantages such as small size, large. The landscape of technology is ever-evolving, and very few components have experienced the kind of rapid transformation as the optical drive. Figure 1: A historical timeline charting Ethernet link speed evolution.
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