14 DAY TRIAL // Sony may not have gone through its most auspicious first two quarters of 2011, but this doesn't mean it slowed by any degree in its product development and manufacturing efforts, as shown by yet another product.
Sony is one of those companies that are working more than a few angles of the IT industry at the same time.
The corporation has a gaming business, divisions for hardware manufacture, one for making of mobile devices, etc.
In this particular instance, it is Sony Optiarc America that is making the news, thanks to the newest DVD writer to become part of its portfolio.
Having already been given an official product page, the newcomer is an accessory that sticks to legacy technologies in order to carry out its task.
What this means is that the USB (Universal Serial Bus) 2.0 connection is implemented, not the newer-generation, SuperSpeed 3.0 standard.
This means that, instead of veering in any way close to 5 Gbps transfers, it will be limited to 480 Mbps, although with SuperSpeed not supported even by the newest of Intel's netbook platforms, this won't really be an issue before 2012, unless users have AMD-based machines or systems with third-party USB 3.0 controller chips built into them.
Either way, the DRX-S90U, as it is called, can write CDs at up to 24X, while DVDs can go from 5X to 8X, depending on type.
As for the physical part of the equation, Sony chose to give the portable optical drive a more or less standard, black frame. The weight of it is 320 grams.
Finally, the company gave the DRX-S90U two USB ports instead of just one and a buffer memory of 2 MB. Its price will be of $70 when it starts shipping in the US, later this month. More detailed information may be found on this page.