Features - Storage Innovations:

SONY SHIPS BLUE LASER-BASED PROFESSIONAL DISC FOR DATA DRIVES

Sony Electronics is shipping its first generation of Professional Disc for DATA optical storage drives, automated devices and media to OEMs and system integrators.

Based on blue laser technology, the new Professional Disc for DATA media stores up to 23GB of native capacity per rewritable or write-once, read-many (WORM) disc, while the new drive sustains a maximum native transfer rate of 11MB per second, 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 new Professional Disc for DATA devices are positioned as a natural successor for users who have outgrown the 9.1GB capacity per magneto-optical (MO) disc offered in the market today, and are looking to use removable storage to address the intensifying data retention and storage requirements driven by growing government regulatory mandates," said Rick Thong, manager of OEM optical storage solutions marketing for Sony Electronics' Component Solutions Business Division. "The new technology offers more than twice the capacity of the MO format in the same form-factor, and is ideal for professional applications such as document and medical imaging, e-mail archiving, enterprise content management, multimedia projects, graphics design and audio/video editing, which demand both high capacity and high performance."

The first generation devices offered to OEMs and system integrators were demonstrated Nov.30-Dec. 4 at the Radiological Society of North America's 2003 Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting in Chicago.

The new Professional Disc for DATA drive and media feature a durable, airtight structure to prevent dust particles from coming in contact with the drive mechanism and disc surface, increasing durability and reliability for critical applications with the convenience of removable optical storage.

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.

Thong said that many suppliers have already expressed interest in the new Professional Disc for DATA technology which is expected to become a major optical data storage format for data-intensive applications in vertical markets including healthcare, telecommunications, banking, insurance, legal and government, where Sony's MO technology continues to be very successful.

Thong explained that 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 22MB per second. He then expects this to be followed by a third-generation drive and media featuring 100GB of capacity with a transfer rate of 43MB per second.

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, 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.