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.