Sony is the latest firm to jump into the blood-bath fast CD-ROM drive market with a unit priced way low.

The Japanese giant's CSD-88EE is an eight-speed drive offering a data transfer rate of 1.2Mb/sec. Sony also claims it has reduced vibration caused by fast spin rates by implementing a new optical pick-up that reduces access times to 160ms and makes for a promised mean time between failure of 100,000 hours. The list price is £115.

"Sony has built this drive from scratch using specially designed eight-speed components, rather than using parts from slower CD-ROM drives," said Neil Berville, sales and marketing manager at Sony Computer Peripherals.

However, with ten-speed drives already available from well under £200 and DVD drives expected for before Christmas, the window of opportunity is bound to be small.

Sony can be contacted at 0181-760 0500.

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