"...Plextor today announced the immediate availability of the PlexWriter 8/8/24A SlimLine CD-RW drive. The internal PlexWriter SlimLine measures just 12.7mm in thickness and weighs 0.62 lbs. Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) of these systems can now build the performance and reliability of a Plextor drive into their products. The internal PlexWriter 8/8/24A SlimLine is currently shipping to OEMs, resellers, and distributors with a $249 manufacturer suggested retail price (MSRP).

Based on an award winning CD-RW drive platform, the PlexWriter 8/8/24A SlimLine lets users write, rewrite, and read compact discs at a variety of speeds. It records CD-R discs at 8X (1.2 MB/sec), 4X (600 KB/sec), or 2X (300 KB/sec) speeds. CD-RW media can be rewritten at 8X (1.2 MB/sec), 4X (600 KB/sec), or 2X (300 KB/sec). Discs are played back at speeds ranging from 4X (600 KB/sec) to 24X (3.6 MB/sec).

The drive features an E-IDE (ATAPI-4) interface and Windows 98/2000/NT/ME Plug & Play compatibility, making installation fast and easy. With a data buffer capacity of 2 MB, average random access time is a very fast 140ms and burst transfer rates are 16.6 MB/second (PIO Mode 4/DMA Mode 2). The drive supports a wide variety of writing modes, including Track-at-Once, Disc-at-Once, Session-at-Once, Multisession, and variable/fixed packet writing..."

You can visit Plextor's USA website in order get more information about the new "PX-W88TA-BP" model. Btw there is an error at posted specifications since Plextor says that the new model is capable of doing "Digital Audio Extraction at 40X max". That of course is not correct, since the drive has 24x (max) speed :-)

Update: After emailing Plextor USA, the maximum DAE speed has been replaced with the 24X value.