Information Today
Volume17, Number 2 • February 2000
Kenwood Technologies Releases Kenwood 72x TrueX CD-ROM Drive

Kenwood Technologies (USA), Inc. has announced the release of the Kenwood 72x TrueX CD-ROM drive, the company’s third high-performance drive based on Zen Research’s TrueX technology.

The Kenwood 72x TrueX CD-ROM drive delivers a sustained transfer rate ranging from 6.75 MB/sec. to 10.8 MB/sec. across the entire disc. Like all TrueX CD-ROM drives, the 72x TrueX reads seven tracks of data in parallel. It also employs Partial Constant Angular Velocity (PCAV) for optimum performance. Unlike a 56x “max” drive that rotates at over 11,000 rpm with excessive noise and vibration, the 72x TrueX drive’s design virtually eliminates vibration and noise while rotating at only 5,100 to 2,700 rpm, according to the company.

A. J. Hart, senior vice president at Kenwood Technologies, said, “With the Kenwood 72x TrueX CD-ROM drive, users can be assured that they are getting the highest transfer rate attainable in the market today for their CD-based applications and data, such as 3-D games, data visualization, desktop publishing, software installation, and digital audio extraction.”

Wolfgang Schlichting, research manager of International Data Corp., said, “Reading several tracks in parallel is an elegant way to improve the data rate without spinning the disc faster. With this technology, Kenwood raises the bar for CD and DVD drive performance.”

According to the company, Kenwood TrueX CD-ROM drives have won over 20 awards in less than 1 year and continue to set the industry performance standard. The Kenwood 72x TrueX CD-ROM drive builds on the success of the preceding 52x TrueX and 42x TrueX drives in the aftermarket channel.

The 72x TrueX drive delivers a performance range of 45x to 72x across the entire disc, unlike an advertised 56x CD-ROM drive that performs at 24x on its innermost tracks and claims performance of 56x on its outermost tracks (if the disc is full). The Kenwood 72x TrueX CD-ROM drive offers a more reliable flow of data to the user with rotational speeds that are less than half that of a 56x drive, enabling precise readability of media with limited vibration. Zen’s TrueX technology allows the Kenwood 72x TrueX to read multiple tracks concurrently, resulting in a faster, quieter, and more reliable CD-ROM drive, according to the company.

Source: Kenwood Technologies (USA), Inc., San Jose, CA, 408/467-7900; Fax: 408/451-1150; http://www.kenwoodtech.com.


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