The drive is designed to fully conform to the SD format, including its back-to-back bonding of 0.6mm-thick five-inch discs and a single-sided capacity seven times larger than that of a CD-ROM disc. The data transfer rate of the new drive is 1,350 kilobyte per second, equals to that of a CD-ROM drives with a 9-times rotational speed -- a speed yet to be achieved. An additional plus for computer users is that they can enjoy the SD's high-quality moving picture image and high quality sound by installing an MEPG-2 decoder board and a Dolby AC-3 decoder board in their computers.

The development of the SD-ROM drive was achieved by the integration of Toshiba's state-of-the-art technologies for high density optical discs, including a new pick-up head, LSIs for SD systems and a low-noise short-wave semiconductor laser diode. The newly-developed optical pick-up achieves backward compatibility through incorporation of two lenses: one is for SDs, while the other allows users to continue to use their audio CDs and CD-ROM software.

Large capacity SD-ROM discs will encourage advanced software for entertainment and education. It will make full use of moving images and sound with a quality that far exceeds that of current CD-ROMs. The SD-ROM can also be utilized for home shopping via electronic catalogues, and other businesses that are emerging with the increasing development of mulitmedia applications.

The drive will be shown at COMDEX/Fall, due to start on November 13 in Las Vegas, U.S.A.

Main specifications of the SD-ROM drive

Model		Built-in 5.25-inch, half-height size
Applicable Disc Format		SD book, Red book, Yellow book CD-ROM XA, CD-I, CD-I Ready, CD-Plus
Interface		ATAPI or SCSI-2
Data transfer rates	Sustained mode	1,350KB/s
	Burst mode	ATAPI	11.1MB/s
		SCSI	5.0MB/s (Sync.)
			4.0MB/s (Async.)
Wavelength of Semiconductor Laser diode		Red laser diode 650nm
Power supply		DC 5V/12V
Dimensions		41.5(H) x 146.0(W) x 203.0(D)mm

Note: Dolby is a trademark of Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corp.