"The CRW6416SXZ external drive is exactly what many users are looking for," said Henio Arcangeli, Jr., vice president/general manager, Consumer Products Division, Yamaha Corporation of America. "It is designed to work with both PC and Mac computers and, like its internal counterpart, this 6X drive can record an entire CD in just 12 minutes, making it one of the fastest drives in the industry. The added flexibility of its external configuration, something very few manufacturers offer, makes this product even more versatile."

The retail version of the new drive, available directly from and only through Yamaha's Consumer Products Division, will include a powerful software bundle featuring Adaptec Easy CD Creator and Direct CD, as well as Adobe PageMill and Photo Deluxe Business Edition. The retail package also includes a CD labeling software and application tool, as well as Graphic Corp's software suite that will let users create CD labels and jewel-case inserts, format large-scale posters, edit photos and manipulate graphics. Like all Yamaha CD-RW drives, the CRW6416SXZ will be available to resellers through a variety of major computer distributors. It will also be offered to consumers at major computer retailers, mail order catalogs and Internet resellers.

The CRW6416SXZ's improved performance not only makes for a more powerful storage device, but also provides faster file backup and random-access rewrite. Its 6X write, 4X rewrite and 16X read data transfer rates make it competitive with other high-capacity removable storage devices. Yamaha drives offer RapidLinked(TM) packet writing, allowing users to add files to a CD one at a time, with the drag-and-drop ease of a floppy disk. Because of its standard command set, the new drive works seamlessly with all major CD-RW software. The drive uses affordable, widely available CD-R media for recording at 6X and the increasingly popular 4X certified CD-RW media for rewriting at 4X.

The new unit incorporates all the features of Yamaha's other award-winning drives. It uses SCSI-2 I/F, maximum 10 MB/sec. burst transfer rate (synchronous transfer) and features Yamaha's proprietary LSI chip set, optical head and the new Write Strategy for reliable high-speed/high-quality recording.

Yamaha has been the world leader in CD-recorder development since the late 1980s, introducing the first programmable CD-recording system in 1988, the first 2X speed CD recording system in 1990, the first 4X half-height CD-R drive in 1993, the first 4X speed writing CD-ReWritable drive in 1997 and the first 4X speed rewriting CD-ReWritable drive in 1998.

For more information on the CRW6416SXZ, write Yamaha Corporation of America, Consumer Products Division, P.O. Box 6600, Buena Park, CA 90622-6600; telephone 714-522-9000; e-mail [email protected]; or visit the Web site at http://www.yamaha.com.

Yamaha Corporation of America (YCA), based in Buena Park, California, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Yamaha. YCA's Consumer Products Division markets and sells Yamaha-branded computer peripherals and music products. Products include: CD-ReWritable Recorders, Computer Speakers, Headphones, and other fine music products.

SOURCE: Yamaha Corporation of America