14 DAY TRIAL // Although Computex 2007 won't start until tomorrow, Toshiba has already announced that they will be showcasing their newest HD-DVD Writer at the show held in Taipei (Taiwan, June 5-9, 2007). Codenamed "SD-L912A", the new drive is also present on their website so if you want to take a closer look at the specs and the drive itself, Toshiba's website is a good place to start.
Along with the drive itself, Toshiba issued a press release from which you can also get general information regarding the new drive and its writing / reading capabilities. Regarding the launch of the new HD-DVD slim drive, Scott Maccabe, vice president and general manager of Toshiba Storage Device Division stated: "High-definition broadcasting and increasing consumer interest in high-definition televisions and camcorders are spurring demand for a high-definition experience across the entire PC and consumer electronics ecosystem."
"HD DVD is the best solution for transitioning to a high-definition world because it is compatible with existing DVD and CD technology. Our new rewritable drive will extend the functionality of HD DVD as a tool for creating and enjoying digital content in the mobile PC environment," continued Mr. Maccabe.
If you've already seen Toshiba's unit you probably know that besides the obvious DVD/CD burning abilities, it can also write HD-DVD disks in both SL and DL mode (single layer - 15GB of data, dual layer - 30 GB of data). In single layer mode the drive can write HD-DVD Disks at 2x but a DL disk will take about twice as much since it can only be written in 1x mode.
Overall Toshiba's drive represents a nice addition to an already successful business in the laptop segment. As a reminder Toshiba was also the first one to roll out a HD-DVD drive for laptops so the fact that they managed to release the first RW unit for laptops comes as a natural conclusion. However, competition would be welcomed. Anyone?