Sony Optiarc, a subsidiary of Sony Group, has released a new high-end DVD burner. The AD-7240S is one of the few t DVD burner to achieve a 24x burning rate.

According to Optiarc, this speed 'miracle' is reliable thanks to Auto Strategy Technology, which was first seen in the predecessor series AD-7200. When you burn a DVD, the drive always reads a section of the media in advance so that the writing head can be optimally adjusted. Adaptive Self Tuning also delivers high performance because the drive automatically adapts to the disc and the hardware environment in every burning process to compensate quality fluctuation.

Sony Optiarc's new flagship product comes with a serial ATA interface. It burns DVDs in +/-R format at up to 24x speed and CDs at up to 48x speed. In DVD-RAM and DVD+R9 format, and on double layer DVD-R media, the Sony Optiarc AD-7240S writes at up to 12x speed. DVD+RW discs are written at up to 8x speed and DVD-RWs at up to 6x speed. The AD-7240S achieves up to 16x reading speed with DVDs and 48x reading speed with CDs. Other features of the new drive include buffer under run protection as well as an automatically controlled speed of DVD / VCD / CD-DA reading during data extraction for smooth reading.

The drive is currently sold in Europe and the United States for about €22 / (bulk version). Optiarc is also offering a Lightscribe version of the drive (AD-7241S).

We received the drive without any accessories or software in the package.

The rear panel is typical and has a power and SATA interfaces.

Let's take a look at the drive's internal board. It is recommended not to open the case of your drive since that would void the warranty.

You can click on each picture for a larger view:

The drive is based on the NEC MC-10045 system LSI (SCOMBO 8).

The SoC supports:

• DVD reading : Max 16x
• DVD writing : Max 24x (DVD-RAM : 16x)
• CD reading : Max 48x
• CD writing : Max 48x

Its basic functions include:

• RF signal processing circuit
• Onboard digital servo functionality
• Auto laser power control circuit
• Decoding and encoding for each disc format
• Onboard digital read channel
• Onboard high-precision write strategy circuit (1/32T resolution)
• Buffer manager
• Built-in content protection (CSS/ CPRM/ VCPS)
• Power management functionality

Built-in CPU functionality

• Onboard 32-bit RISC CPU (V850ES core)
• Built-in RAM (14KB)
• Power management functionality
• Built-in peripheral circuits (timer, interrupt controller, serial interface)

The drive was installed on our test PC and was recognized under Windows XP as "Optiarc DVD RW AD-7240S":