Plextor plans to ship a new CD-RW drive with the codename "CD-R PX-W4824A". The drive supports 48X writing, 24X re-writing, 40X & 48X (under "Turbo" mode) reading, 4MB buffer, BURN-Proof, VariRec and PoweRec technologies as the previous Plextor drives. This would be the first ever Plextor drive that offers faster writing (48X CAV) than reading (40X CAV) speeds! The drive expected to hit the market around middle of September-early October...

Product specifications:

- Writing speeds: 48X (CAV), 40X (P-CAV), 32X (P-CAV), 24X (P-CAV), 20X (CLV), 16X (CLV), 8X (CLV), 4X (CLV)
- Re-writing speeds: 24X (P-CAV), 16X (CLV), 10X (CLV), 10X (CAV) (MRW only), 4X (CLV)
- Reading speeds: 40X (CAV) and 48X (CAV) under special "Turbo" mode
- 4MB Buffer + BURN-Proof
- PoweRec media detection quality system
- VariRec AudioCD authoring system (again at 4X writing speed)
- OverBurning up to 94:55mins
- Black Tray to reduce C1C2 errors and improved PCB to reduce Jitter
- Capable of Digital Audio Extraction at 40X (max)
- Supports CD-DA; CD-ROM (Mode 1); CD-ROM (Mixed Mode); CD-ROM XA (Mode 2, Form 1 and Form 2 and Mixed Form; CD-I; Photo CD; Video CD; CD-Extra; CD+G; CD Text
- Supports Disc-at-Once, Track-at-Once, Session-at-Once
- Flash ROM allows for easy upgrade over the Internet
- E-IDE (ATAPI-4) interface (UDMA2)
- Windows 98/2000/ME/XP Compatible