Japanese Bufallo today announced the industry's first 10x BD-R burner, which will be available in the beginning of next month in both internal and external versions.

Both the BR-H1016SU2 (external eSATA/USB 2.0) and the BR-H1016FBS-BK models (internal SATA) models are based on the Hitachi LG Data Storage (HLDS) BH10NS30 BD drive.

The BR-H1016SU2 version will retail in Japan for 35,490 Yen (US$378.5) while the BR-H1016FBS-BK will be cheaper and will retail for 29,925 Yen (US$320).

The drives will be capable of burning data at 10x on specific 6x-certified BD-R discs (Sony and Panasonic 6x BD-R SL) and at 8x on and TDK/Panasonic BD-R DL. However, the maximum BD-R burning speed for the external model will be limited at 8x, when the drive is connected to the USB 2.0 interface.

The specifications of the drives also include 6x burning with the latest LTH BD-R discs by Mitsubishi Chemicals (Verbatim), 2x for BD-RE (SL and DL), 16x for DVD recordable SL and and 8x for DVD recordable DL discs. 12x DVD-RAM as well as 48x CD-R writing are also supported.