TDK announced the the DVW-A080412N. the company's first 8x DVD writer. The drive supports 8x DVD+R/-R and 32x CD-R recording, making it possibly the fastest drive in the market for both DVD and CD formats. The drive is available this month.

Based on Pioneer reference design, the drive offers the following writing speeds: 8x for DVD-R/+R, 4x for DVD-RW/+RW, 32x for CD-R and 16x for CD-RW. The internal drive has a black front bezel and incorporates a quiet mechanism which give <45 dB acoustic noise, TDK claims.

The DVD Writer comes complete with a Windows PC software suite, including Nero Express 6, Nero Vision Express 2, Nero InCD 4, BackITup, Recode 2 and Showtime. Specifications:

- DVD Write Speed: 8x (+R); 8x (-R)
- DVD Rewrite Speed: 4x (+RW); 4x (-RW)
- DVD Read Speed: 12x
- CD Write Speed: 32x
- CD Read Speed: 40x
- CD Rewrite Speed: 16X
- CD Rip Speed: 40x
- Buffer Underrun Protection: Yes
- Playable Formats: DVD-Video ROM, CD-DA, CD-ROM+CD-DA, CD-Extra
- Readable Formats: DVD-ROM, DVD+RW (video and data), DVD+R (video and data), DVD-RW (video and data), DVD-R (video and data), CD-DA, CD TEXT, CD-ROM, CD-ROM+CD-DA, CD-ROM XA, CD-I, Photo CD, CD EXTRA, CD-G
- Writeable Formats: DVD+R (video and data), DVD+RW (video and data), DVD-RW (video and data), DVD-R (video and data), CD-DA, CD-ROM (Mode 1), CD-ROM XA, Photo CD, VideoCD, CD-I, CD-Extra, CD Text
- DVD Writing Modes: Multisession (DVD+R), Sequential, Random Access (DVD+RW) Multisession (DVD-R), Sequential, Random Access (DVD-RW)
- CD Writing Modes: Track-at-Once, Disc-at-One, Session-at-Once, Multisession, Packet Writing