Yamaha Electronics Corp. is offering a high-speed internal alternative for “mirrored door” Power Mac G4 users: The CRW-F1ZEM, a high speed CD-RW kit specifically for internal installation on dual-processor Power Mac G4s. The CRW-F1ZEM can be installed in the second optical drive bay on those dual-processor machines, according to Yamaha.
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Already available in an external FireWire/USB 2.0 combo configuration, the CRW-F1 drive itself features up to 44x CD-R write speed, 24x CD-RW rewrite speed, and 44x read speed for CD-ROMs and audio CDs. The drive comes with 8MB of buffer memory, “Safe-Burn” buffer underrun protection and full Constant Angular Velocity (CAV) support, which provides more reliable performance at higher speeds, according to the manufacturer.
The speedy optical drive also has Mt. Rainer support. Mt. Rainer is an open industry standard intended to simplify the format and management of CD-RW media — Yamaha said support for Mt. Rainer provides true drag and drop CD rewriting and on the fly formatting. Yamaha’s “Advanced Audio Master Quality Recording System” adds improved durability and better audio recording quality by adjusting the way that audio data is written to CD-R discs. One of the CRW-F1’s most unusual attributes is support for “Disc T@2,” a technology that enables users to write designs or printed information to the unused portion of a CD-R disc, thus enabling users to “tattoo” logos, designs, and more to the underside of the disc itself.
The CRW-F1ZEM — the Macintosh-specific internal drive bundle from Yamaha — includes Roxio Toast 5 Lite, Adobe Photoshop LE, and MusicMatch Jukebox. The drive now works with Apple’s own Disc Burner software and iTunes as well.
Yamaha said the new internal drive configuration would be carried nationwide by retailers and distributors, including the Apple Store. The CRW-F1ZEM bundle carries a suggested retail price of US$129.99.
If you’re looking for an external drive based on the same mechanism, the FireWire/USB 2.0 Combo drive is still available for $279.99, and a model equipped with an Ultra SCSI interface is also available for $329.99.