CenDyne today announced that it will make the industry's first 40X12X48 CD-RW drive available on Feb. 15, 2002. The "Lightning III" 40x12x48 CD-RW drive combines blistering performance and ultra-high quality design to deliver fast, reliable burns, making the drive perfect for data back-up, archiving and storing any type of digital media. "The drives we sell are trailblazers in quality," said Ed Meadows, president, CenDyne. "We've built CenDyne by focusing on meeting our customers' long-term computing needs - that means we'll never compromise quality or reliability. By incorporating such features as SmartBurnR technology into the CenDyne Lightning III 40X12X48 drive, we've given our customers a product that will provide reliable, fast recording, and very few 'coasters'."

The CenDyne Lightning III CD-RW drive includes the award winning NeroT 5.5 CD recording software, which includes Nero Tool Kit, Nero Wave Editor and Nero Cover Designer, as well as InCDT drag-and-drop packet writing software. With this suite of software, business users and consumers have an easy, complete way to manage, burn and store their data. The CenDyne Lightning 40X12X48 is the ideal storage device for businesses that need daily data back-up, a means to archive important records and a way to exchange large data files. Consumers can use the Lightning III 40x12X48 CD-RW drive to save precious photography on high-quality CD media, build their own personal music library of MP3 files, or store personal information.

The CenDyne Lightning III 40X12X48 drive provides 40X CD-R write, 12X CD-RW rewrite and 48X CD-ROM read speeds. The drive comes complete with everything necessary to begin recording data right away, including CD-R media and IDE and audio cables.

The Lightning III 40X12X48 internal IDE CD-RW drive will be available starting Feb. 15, 2002 for $199.99 U.S. estimated retail price through leading computer and consumer electronics retailers.