The Asus CD-S500

The adoption of the CD-ROM as standard equipment into the personal computer was both quick and unanimous. At the time, programs were still being distributed on floppy discs, and it wasn't uncommon to see packages ship with 5, 10, or even 15 double-sided disks. That was a good eight years ago, and the CD-ROM has evolved greatly since the days of the first 1x drives. We're seeing CD-ROMs move up to 30, 40 and now even 50 times the speed of the original 150KBps mark.

The Asus 50xMax CD-S500 is the first CD-ROM drive to hit the 50x mark, transferring data at a maximum of 7,500 KB/s. There have been drives rated at 40x, 42x, and even 45x, but there's significance in big rounded numbers, if nothing then for simplicity. It also boasts a super-fast access time of 75ms, one of the best in the industry. We've got our hands on one of the first production units, which are slated to go on sale within the month! The specifications for the 50xMax CDS-500 are as follows:

Features
Form Factor	Internal 5.25"
Transfer Rate	3,300 to 7,500 KB/s
Access Time	75ms
Rotational Speed	10400 rpm
Interface	EIDE PIO Mode 4, UltraDMA/33
Supported Disc Formats	Audio CD, CD-ROM (mode 1 and 2), Mixed mode, XA, Video CD, CD-I, Photo-CD, Karaoke CD, CD Extra, I-Trax, CD-R, CD-RW
Disc Sizes	3", 5"
Hardware Buffer	128KB