Sony Brings Double Density CD-R/RW Technology to the U.S. Market; New Double Density CD-R/RW Drive and Media Provide 1.3GB of Capacity for the First Time

Business Wire, March 13, 2001

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 13, 2001

Sony Electronics today announced it will begin shipping its Double Density CD-R/RW products throughout the U.S. beginning in April, offering twice the capacity of conventional 650MB CD-R/RW media.

The new Sony Double Density ATAPI internal drive (model CRX200E-A1) and corresponding Double Density 1.3GB DD-R/RW media maintain the same features that have made the conventional CD-R and CD-RW formats so popular, while satisfying the need for higher capacity. The drive is also capable of recording standard CD-R/RW discs and reading all CD-based discs for smooth backward compatibility.

By incorporating a user-friendly software package, the Double Density drive provides a powerful, yet cost-effective storage solution for corporate, professional and small office/home office users who need extra capacity to store and manage their data quickly and easily.

"The Sony Double Density drive is designed to provide the same functionality of conventional CD-RWs with more capacity for sharing, backing up and archiving large files," said Robert DeMoulin, product marketing manager for Value Added Products at Sony Electronics' Component Company.

The drive supports high speed 12X maximum write for DD-R/CD-R, 8X maximum rewrite for DD-RW/CD-RW and 32X maximum playback for all CD types. It also incorporates an 8MB buffer memory for secure writing at high speeds.

In order to double capacity, DeMoulin said that a few simple modifications were made to the conventional CD format. Physical track pitch and minimum track length were miniaturized to increase data capacity from 650MB to 1.3GB, a parameter in the error-correction scheme (CIRC) was changed, and the address format (ATIP) was expanded. The remaining areas inherit the basic specifications of the conventional CD format to make use of the existing CD infrastructure.

The Double Density drive comes with high performance recording software that is compatible with Windows(R) 95/98/2000, Windows Me(TM) or Windows NT(R) 4.0 systems.

Sony's CD Complete Pro software suite offers feature-intensive applications for Windows-based systems. This package also comes with an integrated product installer that provides an easy path for users to choose the software they prefer to install on their PC. The software package includes:

-- Sony CD Extreme(TM), which allows users to create CDs or make back-ups of
their existing CDs;

-- Sony abCD, which lets users drag-and-drop files and folders to DD-RW/CD-RW
discs as easily as to a floppy or hard drive;

-- Liquid Player, which makes a catalog of more than 70,000 Liquid Audio secure
music tracks available for download (some paid, some free) and burn to CD; and

-- Dantz Development's Retrospect(R) Express, with its full-featured unattended
back-up software that uses compression to store up to 2.6GB of data on a Double
Density disc, and is compatible with disaster recovery.

Availability, Pricing and Warranty

The Sony Double Density ATAPI internal drive (model CRX200E-A1) will be available next month for an estimated U.S. retail selling price of $249. DD-R and DD-RW discs will also be available for about $1.99 and $2.99 respectively. Sony supports "worry-free" installation and easy operation with toll-free customer and technical service, Monday through Saturday, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., CST, along with a one-year limited warranty from date of purchase.

Key Specifications

                          Double Density         Conventional
                            CD-ROM/R/RW           CD-ROM/R/RW
Data Capacity                  1.3 GB                 650 MB

Disc Size               Diameter: 120 mm or 80 mm, Thickness: 1.2 mm

Track Pitch                    1.1 um                  1.6 um

Minimum Pit Length           0.623 um                0.833 um

Scanning Velocity             0.9 m/s          1.2 to 1.4 m/s
(multiplies acc.
 to drive speed)

Laser Wavelength                         780 nm

Objective Lens        Read: NA = 0.50          Read: NA = 0.45
                Read/Write: NA = 0.55    Read/Write: NA = 0.50

Modulation                                EFM

Error Correction                CIRC7                     CIRC



DDCD Recording                 DD-R                    DD-RW
 Media                  (Recordable DDCD)        (ReWritable DDCD)

Model                         CDQ13G1                 CDRW13G1

Capacity                          1.3 GB (2048 B/sector)



DDCD Drive           Sony CRX200E-A1

 Interface            Ultra DMA/33 ATAPI

 Media Capacity       1.3 GB (DDCD), 650 / 700 MB (conventional CD)

 Write Speed          12x DD-R/CD-R (1.8 MB/s),
                      8x DD-RW/CD-RW (1.2 MB/s)

 Read Speed           32x max DD-ROM/CD-ROM

 Buffer Memory        8 MB

 Average Access Time  125 ms

 Formats Supported    DDCD (defined by the purple book CD standard),
                       CD Digital Audio, CD Extra, CD Text, CD-ROM,
                       CD-ROM XA, CD-I, CD-I Ready, Video CD, Photo CD
                       (single- and multi-session)

 Write Methods        Disc at once (CD), session at once (CD), track
  Supported            at once (CD, DDCD), fixed/variable-packet
                       recording (CD, DDCD), multi-session (CD, DDCD)