Iomega Corporation has announced the release of its fastest external CD-RW drive to date however, like the Iomega Predator released early last year, it may be a little too fast for the PC industry.
The new drive is capable of at 16x10x40 when served by USB 2.0 compatible port. The USB 2.0 interface is 40 times faster than its prdecessor USB 1.1, making it capable of transfer rates of 60Mb/s as opposed to 1.5Mb/s, the maximum achievable under the older standard. However, most current PC systems still carry the older USB 1.1 interface.
The newer interface is expected to be integrated into PCs in the near future -- Microsoft has chosen to include native driver support for USB 2.0 hardware in Windows XP. However, for now drawing maximum performance from the drive will require the purchase of an additional third-party USB 2.0 card (costing around AU$100 to AU$200).
To ensure that the new drive's compatibility is maximised, across both IBM and Apple PC platforms, it supports USB 1.1 compliant interfaces. However, the older port limits its performance to 4x4x6. With this in mind, it's worth your while to remember that all references to the drive's performance in Iomega's promotional material assumes that it is being used with a USB 2.0 compliant interface.
Iomega claims the disc can sustain its 'fastest' write speed across an entire disc. At 16x this would allow users to burn a 60-minute audio CD in less than five minutes, or back-up a 500Mb file in under eight minutes. The drive also boasts a 32x DAE (Digital Audio Extraction) speed, allowing users to rip a three-minute song from a CD in as little as six seconds.
According to Iomega the drive will retail for around AU$549.00.
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