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Update: CD-RW: What's next

Mt. Rainier technology is just one new feature coming to CD-R/RW drives. Look as well for faster CD-R and CD-RW write speeds, and perhaps fewer media delays than in the past.

Drive makers CenDyne and TDK expect to be shipping 48X-rated CD-R drives around the time you read this, with other vendors sure to follow. Media for these 48X drives should appear at about the same time, say media vendors.

CenDyne's first 48X drives will write CD-RW at 12X; a 48X/24X drive should appear a month later, say company spokespeople. TDK hopes to launch its 48X drives with 24X CD-RW capability.

Specifications for 24X CD-RW have not been finalized and may delay release of the drives. Consequently, Mary Craig, Gartner Dataquest principal analyst for optical storage, believes that expecting 24X CD-RW drives to become available even by the third quarter or early fourth quarter of this year may be optimistic.

Don't look for anything beyond 24X for CD-RW for a while. Industry experts agree that CD-R write speeds may jump--perhaps to 52X or even 60X--but they won't roll out as quickly as they have over the past year, when speeds tripled from 16X to the imminent 48X.

If that's not enough speed for you, it may be time to start looking at a rewritable-DVD model.

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