Hitachi America Announces Industry's Fastest CD-ROM Drive for Personal Computers
BRISBANE, CA
Nov 6, 1997 00:00 AM
Hitachi America, Ltd. today introduced the industry’s fastest CD-ROM drive for personal computers, the CDR-8430. With 80ms average access time and a 14X - 32X maximum data rate, the CDR-8430 enables exceptionally fast loading of applications and data from CD media to computer hard drives. The CDR-8430 also reads data recorded on all types of CD media, including CD-R and CD-RW discs used as for distribution of applications and data by multimedia content developers, graphic designers and other business users of CD technology.
The CDR-8430 is the third Hitachi CD-ROM drive to use Constant Angular Velocity (CAV) technology, which improves the data transfer performance and reliability of CD drives by spinning discs at a constant rate. In CAV technology drives, data transfer rates increase as the optical reader head moves from the inner to outer tracks of a CD disc. Additionally, the constant motor speed eliminates the need for settling of the optical pickup after seeking data, resulting in an improved access rate compared to drives using older CLV (Constant Linear Velocity) technology.
"The worldwide CD-ROM market is projected to exceed shipments of more than 50 million drives in both 1997 and 1998," said Werner Glinka, Director of Marketing for the Storage Products Group of Hitachi America, Ltd. "Hitachi intends to maintain its position as a leading supplier of these products to the PC industry throughout the transition to next generation DVD technology, and the CDR-8430 is the product many of our customers want for CD-equipped systems shipping in the first half of 1998."
"The worldwide CD-ROM market is projected to exceed shipments of more than 50 million drives in both 1997 and 1998," said Werner Glinka, Director of Marketing for the Storage Products Group of Hitachi America, Ltd. "Hitachi intends to maintain its position as a leading supplier of these products to the PC industry throughout the transition to next generation DVD technology, and the CDR-8430 is the product many of our customers want for CD-equipped systems shipping in the first half of 1998."
The CDR-8430 has a spindle rotation speed of 7,490 rpm, which equates to data transfer rates ranging from 2,100 kbytes/s on inner tracks to 4,800 kbytes/s on the outermost tracks. The drive uses the E-IDE (ATAPI PIO Mode 4) bus interface and supports DMA (Direct Memory Access) Mode 2 to minimize the effect of drive operations on CPU performance. Physical dimensions are 146 mm X 41.3 mm X 190 mm, and the drive has a weight of approximately 1 kg. The CDR-8430 drive supports all standard CD-ROM formats, including Mode 1 and Mode 2 discs, Photo CD, Audio CD, Data and Audio Mixed Mode, and CD-Extra. CD-Recordable and CD-Rewritable media can also be read in the drive.
The CDR-8430 drive is marketed in North America by the Computer Division of Hitachi America, Ltd. While Hitachi’s principal customers are personal computer OEMs, the company expects that upgrade kit vendors will package the drive for resale directly to end-users at competitive retail prices.
The Computer Division of Hitachi America, Ltd. sells high-capacity, high-performance hard disk drives, CD-ROM, and DVD drives through its Storage Products Group.