Since most of you are eager to see what USB 2.0 can do to speed up peripherals, we like to share this with you. QPS Inc. has sent us some specifications on their latest USB 2.0 storage line-up.

QPS! plans to ship the industry's first commercial USB 2.0 storage products, including a DVD-RAM drive, a CD-rewriteable, and an external hard drive. They are all enclosed in a sleek translucent graphite case with both Mac and PC support.

Que! USB 2.0 DVD-RAM
This drive will be able to read and write 9.4GB DVD-RAM (double-sided) at 2.7MB/s (2X), access DVD-ROM at 8.3MB/s (6X), and read CD-ROM at 3.6MB/s (24X). With its internal hard drive, the DVD-RAM could boost the speed up to 5MB/s in an enhanced caching mode when accessing DVD-RAM. Access times for the compatible media are as follows: 210ms for DVD-RAM, 165ms for DVD-ROM, 140ms for CD-ROM. These specifications are similar to QPS's FireWire counterpart, and both drives will be in a head-to-head competition.

Que! USB 2.0 CD-rewritable drive
With an average access time of 170ms, the first USB 2.0 burner is reportedly able to write at 16X and rewrite at 10X. With these numbers, it will be more appealing to consumers and prosumers alike. 2MB of buffer memory are included. The drive will also accompany PC-compatible Easy CD Creator and DirectCD. Now, our USB 1.1 burners can retire.

Que! M3 UltraSlim Hard Drive
With a peak transfer rate at 50MB/s, the USB 2.0 external hard drive is designed for heavy multimedia work, including digital recording and video editing. So, QPS throws in a copy of Que! D2D (DV-to-DVD) MPEG-2 video conversion and encoding software. This will help you to convert DV footage from your camcorder into DVD MPEG-2 files that can be played on any computers. Inside the box is a 2.5" 4200RPM drive.

For all three drives, you need new USB 2.0 compliant cables. Fear not, they are included, and some of our USB 1.1 cables can be a replacement also.

Unfortunately, all of these require new USB 2.0 PCI cards that should arrive January 2001. We expect to see USB 2.0 upgrade solutions will be availble from Belkin, Orange Micro., and Aten.

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