Sony Electronics is shipping its first generation of Professional Disc for DATA™ optical storage drives, automated devices and media to OEMs and system integrators. The drives deliver up to 23 GB of capacity on a single-sided disc.

Based on blue laser technology, the new Professional Disc for DATA media stores up to 23 GB of native capacity per rewritable or write-once, read-many (WORM) disc, while the new drive sustains a maximum native transfer rate of 11 MB/sec, delivering an advanced optical storage and archiving solution for professional data-intensive applications.

For high capacity and high performance disc handling, the new automated Sony Autochanger offers up to 1.6TB of native capacity in a compact 19-inch rack-mount design that may be configured with one, two or four drives for the desired balance between storage capacity and speed.

The first generation devices offered to OEMs and system integrators are being demonstrated at the Radiological Society of North America's 2003 Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting at the McCormick Place Complex in Chicago from Nov 30 to Dec 4.

The 5.25-inch internal drives incorporate an Ultra-wide 160 SCSI interface for easy integration into external subsystems, high-end workstations, servers and automated libraries commonly used for storage and long-term archival purposes.

Sony plans to leverage its experience in optical recording and hopes to bring a second-generation drive and media to the market by 2005 that will feature up to 50 GB of capacity with a transfer rate of 22 MB/sec. He then expects this to be followed by a third-generation drive and media featuring 100 GB of capacity with a transfer rate of 43 MB/sec.

The new Professional Disc for DATA drive (internal model BW-F101 and external model BW-S101) and Autochanger in three model configurations (BW-J601-20, BW-J601-10, BW-J601-40) are available to OEMs as well as system integrators through value-added resellers (VARs), industrial and value-added distributors (VADs) who purchase through Sony's industrial distribution channel. As one of the largest recording media manufacturers in the world, Sony is also shipping both rewritable (PDDRW23) and write-once (PDDWO23) Professional Disc for DATA media.

Sony-branded Professional Disc for Data solutions, including application software and accessories will be available in the first calendar quarter of 2004.