Plextor Announces 12x Recordable DVD Drives

Plextor has announced two new recordable DVD drives that burn up to 12x DVD+R, including one with an SATA interface.

Demonstrating its technical leadership in the emerging Serial ATA (SATA) market, Plextor Corp. today announced the PX-712SA DVD±R/RW drive with support for high-speed 12X DVD+R and 8X DVD-R recording. With the PX-712SA, users can record a full DVD in less than 6 minutes at a burst rate of 16.5 MB per second, allowing them to create, edit, and share customized DVDs faster than ever before.

The new internal drive is the first Plextor product to feature an integrated Serial ATA connection, enabling OEMs and System Integrators to leverage the benefits of Serial ATA. Serial ATA, which extends bandwidth to 150 MB/sec, is an evolutionary replacement for the Parallel ATA (E-IDE) physical storage interface. The interface supports one device per controller connection, eliminating master/slave configuration jumper issues. SATA also provides a substantial pin count reduction from Parallel ATA, while thinner cables help air-flow and improve cable routing.

“The architecture of most PCs is shifting to Serial ATA as the preferred internal interface, which opens significant market opportunities for optical drives that take advantage of this new interface,” said Wolfgang Schlichting, Research Director, Removable Storage, IDC.

“Intel and Plextor have tested Plextor’s integrated Serial ATA PlexWriter drive and SATA Conversion Kits to ensure compatibility on a broad platform,” said Knut Grimsrud, Intel Senior Principal Engineer. “Plextor’s strong support for SATA will help spur adoption of this new interface standard in the optical disk drive market.”

“Plextor fully embraces the PC industry’s transition to SATA,” said Howard Wing, vice president of sales and marketing for Plextor. “By adding this fifth interface technology to our product line, Plextor now offers more interfaces than any optical disk drive manufacturer – ATAPI, SCSI, USB 2.0, FireWire, and the new SATA.”

PX-712A DVD±R/RW:

Plextor Corp. today also announced the new PX-712A DVD±R/RW drive with support for high-speed 12X DVD+R and 8X DVD-R recording. The internal drive features an ATA/ATAPI-5 (EIDE) interface for broad based PC-compatibility.

With the PX-712A, users have the ability to create, edit, and share customized DVDs and CDs faster than ever before. The new Plextor drive also helps remove the risk of purchasing a DVD/CD burner that does not comply with future DVD recording standards and it gives customers greater flexibility in choosing which DVD recordable media they use today.

The PX-712A supports 12X DVD+R and 8X DVD-R Writing; 4X DVD+RW and 4X DVD-RW Rewriting; and 16X max DVD-Reading. The DVD/CD burner also boasts high-speed 48X CD-R Writing, 24X CD-RW Rewriting, and 48X max CD-Reading. The drive includes a bundle of premium Microsoft Windows-compatible software from Roxio, including Roxio Easy CD & DVD Creator 6 – DVD Edition, and Roxio PhotoSuite 5 SE.