Storage: HP's First Portable CD-RW Drive Weighs Just 1 Pound, Fits in the Palm of a Hand - Product Announcement

Edge: Work-Group Computing Report, March 29, 1999

Hewlett-Packard Company, the worldwide marketshare leader of CD-ReWritable (CD-RW) drives, Monday announced HP's first drive for mobile professionals -- the HP CD-Writer Plus M820e. The new portable SCSI CD-RW drive weighs less than a pound and fits in the palm of a hand.

HP also announced three other drives, offering the most complete family of multipurpose rewritable CD drives in the industry, with a price, performance and software solution for every customer need.

"CDs are becoming a standard medium for storing, backing up and sharing files," said Jerry Shea, general manager for CD-ReWritable products at HP. "We have seen a need for a portable drive, one that is light enough and small enough for business travelers to take with them. The new HP drive for mobile professionals fits into a jacket pocket."

CD-RW drives allow users to create, write, re-write, store, manage and share data, music, photos and video on a CD just as they would save information to a floppy. However, CDs can store up to 650MB of data -- the equivalent of more than 400 standard high-density floppy disks, or 20,000 scanned pages of text. The speed of CD-RW drives is equal to that of a CD-ROM drive, allowing users to move up to CD-RW drives without losing performance.

HP's CD-RW offering now includes the following:

* HP CD-Writer Plus M820e -- HP's smallest drive -- a slimline, mobile CD-RW external SCSI drive that reads data at up to 20X transfer speed and writes up to 4X transfer speed. At 5 inches by 6.5 inches and less than 1 inch thick, it easily fits in the palm of a hand. It is portable enough to take on the road with a laptop and powerful enough to use at the desktop.

* HP CD-Writer Plus 8200i -- HP's fastest drive -- an internal rewritable IDE drive that reads data at up to 24X transfer speed and writes at up to 4X transfer speed.

* HP CD-Writer Plus 7500 series -- HP's entry-level solution

* internal and external drives that write data at up to 2X transfer speed. The internal drives read at up to 24X transfer speed; the external drives read data at up to 6X transfer speed.

The 8200 and 7500 series include HP fast format, which allows users to format a CD-RW disc in about five minutes. Each drive has software tailored to fit the needs of the user. All drives include Adaptec Direct CD and Adaptec's Easy CD Creator Standard Edition, which make it easy for users to create and share CDs.

The 8100 series, which has been available since last fall, is HP's value product. With read speeds up to 24X transfer speed and write speeds between 2X and 4X transfer speed, the 8100 has high performance at an affordable price point.

U.S. Pricing and Availability The HP CD-Writer Plus 8200 and 7500 series are expected to be available May 1 through HP-authorized resellers, distributors, retailers and mail-order catalogs worldwide. The HP CD-Writer Plus M820e drive for mobile professionals is expected to be available by July. The HP CD-Writer Plus 8100 series is available now for $399, but is expected to be available May 1 at the reduced price below.

The expected street prices for the drives are as follows:
HP CD-Writer Plus 8200i     $349
HP CD-Writer Plus M820e      599
HP CD-Writer Plus 7550i      249
HP CD-Writer Plus 7500e      349
HP CD-Writer Plus 8100i      299

More information is available at http://www.hp.com/storage/cdwriter.