History (1995): HP CD-R Built by Philips

Few large computer manufacturers currently boast CD-R drives among their product lines.

The entree in this domain by Hewlett-Packard (Palo Alto, CA), a peripherals giant (scanners, printers, tape and disk drives), is therefore a major event.

To set itself apart from the competition, HP will drop prices. The SureStore CD-Writer 4020i is listed at $1,249 and the company said it is expected to sell for about $1,099.

Until now, it was virtually impossible to find a unit for less than $1,500. It is probable that HP’s product will ultimately dip below the psychological barrier of $1,000.

For this price, in addition to the CD reader/recorder the complete package includes two blank disks of up to 650MB of data or 74mn of audio, a SCSI-2 adapter card (which does not, however, permit daisy-chaining with other peripherals), and multiple software: Easy-CD, an extension of the Windows file manager for file transfer to CD, Alchemy Personal which lets users create and search custom databases, Magic Lantern for Photo CD viewing, and Easy-CD audio to prepare audio disks.

The US firm, which has no hardware know-how in the CD realm, looked to Philips for its machinery.

The 4X CD reader and 2X recorder install in a PC half-height 5.25-inch bay.

The CD-R media are listed at $16 and expected street price is $12.

The complete package has been available since October.

MTBF of the drive is 150,000 hours, according to HP.

Recently, Yamaha Corp. of America (San Jose, CA) lowered the list price of its 4X CD recorder to $2,995 for an external unit and $1,695 for an internal unit.

Last April, DynaTek Automation Systems announced its low-cost COM 200 CD-ROM 2X recording system for Windows and Macintosh with a suggested list price of $1,695.

This article is an abstract of news published on the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter on issue ≠93, published on October 1995.