MO drive (MODD) SONY ProData BW-F101, 23.3GB, internal
The BW-F101 is the first Blu-ray drive designed for use with PCs. The selling point of the Blu-ray format, apart from its apparent storage endowment, is also its speed and editing features, which allow users to master the discs in a variety of ways, like that of DVD-RAM. Plus, cartridge-protected Blu-ray media are supposed to be more robust than current optical formats like CDs and DVDs.
Blu-ray is a new optical recording technology designed to allow a single-sided, 12cm disc to hold up to 27GB of storage (most DVDs hold 4.7GB of data). The technology uses a short-wavelength violet/blue laser--instead of the red lasers in current optical drives--to read data from the discs so require much less space to store each bit of information.
Not your average drive
Sony's new drive is a 5.25-inch internal model that relies on a cartridge slot to feed media, instead of the tray-feeding mechanism. Unlike most writers, the drive also uses an Ultra-wide 160 SCSI (Small Computer Systems Interface) interface to transfer data. The argument here is that the SCSI interface is capable of much better data-transfer performance and poses less of a bottleneck problem than mainstream IDE (Integrated Devices Electronic) interfaces. The downside: SCSI adapters are expensive and you need to purchase them separately.
The drive supports reading and writing on Sony's new Blu-ray media. These rewritable and write-once cartridge-based discs come in different storage capacities, ranging from 23 to 27GB, and cost around US$45 (S$85) per blank. According to Sony, the BW-F101 transfers data at a rate of 9MBps (megabytes per second) processing Blu-ray media. That's twice the speed of the fastest 4x DVD writers which plateaus at the 5.5Mbps mark, but in real-world application it still takes the drive 50 minutes to fill an entire 27GB disc.
Backward compatible
Apart from Blu-ray reading and recording, the BW-F101 will also support the reading (only) of DVD-Video, DVD-RW, DVD-R, CD, CD-R and CD-RW discs, but not DVD+R, DVD+RW and DVD+RAM. Existing DVD drives and players, however, won't be able to read or write to Blu-ray media.
Software support for the BW-F101 remains a question mark--popular mastering applications such as Nero Burning ROM and Roxio Easy CD currently do not support the Blu-ray format so it's likely that Sony will be bundling the BW-F101 with a proprietary mastering program to enable users to edit and burn Blu-ray media.
At press time, only a Japanese launch has been scheduled for the BW-F101US and Sony has made no mention of the drive's availability outside of Japan and the US. But we can always hope.
| General |
| Drive type |
DVD+RW/ DVD-RW |
|
| CD/DVD enclosure type |
Internal |
|
| Interface type |
SCSI |
| Media |
| Supported formats |
Sony Blu-ray disc; DVD Video; DVD-ROM; DVD-R/RW; CD-ROM; CD Text; CD Extra; CD-DA (audio); CD-I; CD-ROM XA; Mixed-mode CD; Photo CD; Video CD |
|
| Media load type |
Slot |
|
| Formatted capacity |
23.3 GB |
| System Requirements |
| Min operating system |
Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition, Microsoft Windows 2000, Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional , Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition |
|
| Min processor type |
Intel Pentium |
