"...LaCie is introducing a 24x10x40x CD-RW drive at this week's National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) trade show in Las Vegas. The CD-RW is available now at an estimated street price of US$399.

With the ability to write CD-Rs at 3.6 MB/s (24X), the industry's highest CD recording speed, the LaCie CD-RW 24x10x40 can burn a complete 650MB CD in about 2.5 minutes, he said. The same drive can be used to rewrite CD-RW discs at 1.5 MB/second (10X) -- the industry's fastest rewrite speed, Mazieres said. The LaCie CD-RW drive also provides 40x playback and fast, 150ms access.

LaCie's 24x10x40x CD-RW can be used with most types of CD-R and CD-RW media, including the latest 16x 700MB CD-R discs, which provide six additional minutes of audio storage or 50MB of data storage, compared to standard 650MB/74-minute CD-R discs. When quality 16X CD-R media is used, it will be checked by the drive and burned at 24X, when possible. If media is not 24X-capable, the drive will automatically downshift to 16X. All LaCie-branded 16X media is 24X compatible..."