Sony Electronics has introduced a new blue laser-based professional disc for data storage. The company’s new ProDATA drives hold up to 23GB of storage capacity on a single-sided optical disc.
ProDATA drives are designed for professional storage applications, such as audio/video editing/authoring, multimedia, graphic design, document storage, medical imaging, e-mail archival and enterprise content management.
The line-up includes three models for integration into nearly any environment-an internal SCSI, an external SCSI and an external USB 2.0 version. In addition to the 23GB per disc optical storage capacity, they feature sustained 11/MB second read and 9MB/s write transfer speeds, offering a quantum leap in performance over existing optical storage formats.
Sony and other media makers offer both write-once and rewritable ProDATA media, with an archival life of up to 50 years.
Given that it is optical-based, ProDATA technology allows for high-speed random access of files, making it suitable for both near-line and archival storage applications.
The Sony-branded ProDATA solution kits include disc formatting and back-up software package comprised of Software Architect’s Disk Drive TuneUp and DataSaver Personal Backup for Microsoft Windows systems and Apple Macintosh computers, as well as one piece of Sony Professional Disc for DATA rewritable media. The media is encased in a special resin cartridge to protect it from dust, fingerprints and other outside contaminants.
Scheduled to ship this month, Sony ProDATA drives will have a suggested retail selling price of $2,995 for the internal SCSI model (BW-F101/A), and $3,299 for the external SCSI model (BW-RS101) or the external USB 2.0 model (BW-RU101).
Professional Disc for DATA media is currently available at a suggested retail selling price of $45 for both the write-once version (model PDDWO23) and the rewritable version (model PDDRW23).
