CES: TDK's 2GB Multi-Mode CD/ML Burner

If the 650 MB of data you can store on a CD-R seems a little confining, but the price of a DVD-RAM drive and its accompanying media seem just a little too expensive, TDK may have an answer for you. The company just let us know that it has developed a CD-RW burner capable of packing 2GB of uncompressed data on the company's CD-R/RW discs. The new drive incorporates a MultiLevel (ML) read/write chip that adds a 2GB "super-size" mode to its standard CD-R/RW recording capability when used with TDK ML-R (write once) or ML-RW (rewritable) discs. The internal drive is rated at 36X/24X/40X in ML mode, which TDK says lets you archive 2GB of data in less than six minutes. It's Windows XP compatible and will be priced at around $199 when it is released in the second quarter of this year. 2GB TDK Certified Plus ML-R and ML-RW discs will be available when the drive hits the streets, and will be available at estimated street prices of $1.99 and $2.99, respectively.