Hitachi America extends DVD-RAM line

Hitachi America Ltd. has begun volume shipments of the GF-1000 rewritable DVD-RAM drive.

The ATAPI DVD drive is the industry's lowest cost-per-MegaByte high-capacity removable storage product, according to the company.

For rewritable data storage, the GF-1000 drive accommodates single and double-sided DVD-RAM media with capacities of 2.6GB and 5.2GB, respectively.

Additionally, the drive can read all currently available 120-cm optical disk formats, including single and multilayer DVD-ROM, DVD-R and DVD-Video, and all prerecorded and writable CDs including CD-ROM, CD-R/RW, Photo, CD Audio and Video CD.

The GF-1000 has a DVD-RAM data transfer rate of 1.38 MB/s, and a data access time of 200 ms. The ATAPI interface supports a burst transfer rate of 16.6 MB/s (PIO Mode 4 and DMA Mode 2). Access and transfer rates vary when reading other media types.

Hitachi estimates that typical street pricing for the drive is approximately $749.

DVD-RAM standard media is available from multiple manufacturers at about $40 for a double-sided, 5.2 GB capacity disk and $25 for a single-sided, 2.6 GB capacity disk.

Hitachi's web site is at http://www.hitachi.co.jp .