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A Year Ago: CD-ROM speeds just keep getting faster

This story was first published November 19, 1996
Written by Garret Keogh, Contributor

Barely a week goes by without a new CD-ROM speed being announced. Toshiba has just released details of its 15-speed drive and Korea's L.G. Electronics has announced a 16-speed CD-ROM drive expected to ship before the end of the year.

Toshiba has announced 10-speed and 12-speed drives in the last few months and this new drive has a data transfer rate of 2,250Kb/sec. Aimed at the desktop computer market the drive, known as the XM-3801B, offers a seek time of only 90ms and an access time of 99ms, said Toshiba.

There are some doubts surrounding the performance of new drives with some mass produced disks. It is predicted that these fast speeds require very accurate disk production. Some disks may not meet the standards required to ensure the correct alignment of the read head with the disk itself.

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