Sony Business Europe’s Storage Solutions division has announced a new product line of high-capacity storage drives and media based on blue laser technology.

The new format, Professional Disc for DATA, offers 23GB capacity on just one single-side disc – five times the capacity of current 5.25-inch Magentic Optical (MO) format or any recordable DVD format.

According to Sony, the Professional Disc for DATA format is the natural successor to the 5.25-inch MO format, starting a roadmap with capacities set to double every two years. Professional Disc for DATA media is available as rewritable and write-once discs.

Sony’s Professional Disc for DATA drives have a sustained read transfer rate of 11MBps (9MBps write), supported by an Ultra160 LVD/SE interface. An air-tight drive design, an optical head with automatic lens cleaning and a dust-safe, robust and antistatic cartridge shell ensures that professional use reliability standards are met, says Sony.

The Professional Disc for DATA drive (model code BW-F101) and both rewritable (PDDRW23) and write-once (PDDWO23) media will be available from November 2003.