Comdex Fall, Las Vegas: CD-ROM drive boffins spin out top-speed models

DVD drives may have been grabbing most of the Comdex spotlight in Las Vegas this week but the humble CD-ROM drive continues to rattle along at breakneck speeds.

Lucky Goldstar (LG) showed an E-IDE 16-speed (2,400Kb/sec) drive with sub-100ms access times and 128Kb buffer. Mitsumi showed a similarly-specified product with 120ms access.

Notebook users will also feel the benefit of faster CD-ROM performance with LG showing its 8-speed (1,200Kb/sec) drive Slim-Type that still leaves room for a floppy drive in standard A4 designs.