"..Ricoh MP8040SE, the drive has 4X CD-R recording, 4X CD-RW rewriting and a 20X (maximum speed) CD-reader and is MAP listed at $549. The new package will be available in early August.
The drive weighs less than 360 grams and, at .09 inches, is super slim. Additionally, the MP8040SE incorporates LSI (Large Scale Integration) technology with an extra small pick-up module to create a fast unit that can be used as a full-time CD-ROM drive. Because the unit comes with a PCMCIA SCSI interface card, users do not need to buy additional hardware.
MP8040SE's CPU utilization is lower overall than the MP7040A and much lower than the competitor's CD-recordable drive. This factor is extremely important for use in laptops because it allows portable computer owners to utilize a multi-task environment without stressing the frequently lower-powered laptop CPUs. The drive also has a 2 MB buffer size, that stains the data transfer and avoids buffer under-run.."