Apex to bring Sony's blue-laser disk solutions to India

Chennai-based Apex Computers will become the first company in India to introduce Sony Electronic's blue-laser-based professional data solution called ProDATA. ProDATA drives pack up to 23GB of storage capacity onto a single-sided optical disc by harnessing the benefits of blue laser technology and advanced optics.

The drives use a blue-violet laser to achieve a shorter wavelength (405nm); while traditional red lasers (650nm) used in CD, DVD and MO drives. The shorter wavelength creates a smaller laser beam spot, which results in higher storage density.

The drives are designed specifically for professional storage applications, such as document and medical imaging, e-mail archival, enterprise content management, multimedia projects, graphic design and audio/video editing/authoring.

Apex will make ProDATA commercially available in August 2004. "The service and support for these drives will be handled by Apex's sales and support offices in Chennai, Bangalore, Secunderabad, Mumbai and New Delhi," says PS Thiagarajan, MD, Apex Computers.

The line-up includes three models for simple integration into nearly any environment--an internal SCSI, an external SCSI and an external USB 2.0 version. In addition to the 23GB per disc optical storage capacity, it features sustained 11/MB second read and 9MB/second write transfer speeds, offering a quantum leap in performance over existing optical storage formats. Sony and other media makers offer both write-once and rewritable ProDATA media, with an archival life of up to 50 years. 

The suggested retail-selling price is Rs 1,62,000 for the internal SCSI model (BW-F101/A), and Rs 1,80,000 for the external SCSI model (BW-RS101) or the external USB 2.0 model (BW-RU101). Professional Disc for DATA media is currently available at a suggested retail-selling price of Rs 2,430 for both the write-once version (model PDDWO23) and the rewritable version (model PDDRW23).

The drive and media features a durable, airtight structure to prevent dust particles from coming in contact with the drive mechanism and disc surface, increasing reliability for critical applications.

Meanwhile, Sony is planning to bring a second-generation drive and media to the market by 2005 that will feature 50 GB of capacity with a transfer rate of 18 MB/sec. This is expected to be followed by a third-generation drive and media featuring 100 GB of capacity with a transfer rate of 36 MB/sec.

NELSON JOHNY

MUMBAI