A standard optical drive, with a black bezel, not installed in a computer
Sony Optiarc DVD drive AD-7240S
Product type
OwnerVinpower
CountryUS
IntroducedApril 3, 2006 (2006-04-03)
Discontinuedno
Previous ownersSony, NEC
Websitewww.optiarcinc.com

Optiarc is a brand of optical disc drives and solid-state drives.[1] It is owned by a US-based Vinpower Digital, Inc.

Initially Optiarc was established on April 3, 2006 as a joint venture between Sony (55% shares) and NEC (45% shares). The company, named Sony NEC Optiarc, focused on manufacturing optical disk drives primarily for the OEM desktop and notebook PC markets.

On September 11, 2008, it was announced that Sony would take over NEC's 45% share, making Optiarc a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony,[2] to be called Sony Optiarc. This took effect on December 5, 2008[3]

In March 2013, Sony closed its Optiarc optical disc drive division,[4][5] laying off about 400 employees globally.

In 2017, an American company, Vinpower Digital, whose main business is manufacturing optical disc and other media duplicators for the commercial market, acquired the rights to the Optiarc brand and product line.[6] The brand PioData is also owned by Vinpower Digital.[7]

Products

Products were both DVD+/-R(W) and BD-ROM drives. Among other things, Sony Optiarc supplied the Blu-ray drives for the Sony PlayStation 3. The naming scheme for the drives is as follows: DDU stands for DVD-ROM, AD stands for DVD-RW, BR for BD-ROM and BC for BD Combo. A combo drive is a drive that only supports the newer format in reading and the predecessor in writing. The three digits that follow indicate the generation, the design (5.25" or slimline) and the speed class. The digit after that the equipment variant and the appended letter the interface. An AD-7243S is a 5.25" DVD-RW Drive with 24x speed when writing to DVD-R and DVD+R blanks. It also supports Labelflash. For Lightscribe, a "1" would be in the fourth position. The "S" indicates SATA. An “A” stands for PATA. However, the last Optiarc drives were no longer available with this legacy interface.

See also

Similar joint ventures

References

  1. ↑ "Optiarc Offers New Line of Robust SSD, Preventing Data Loss and Failures Due to Latent Flash Issues". Retrieved October 16, 2020.
  2. ↑ "Sony Optiarc". Archived from the original on December 18, 2008. Retrieved December 19, 2008.
  3. ↑ "Sony Optiarc <Overview>". Archived from the original on January 24, 2010. Retrieved December 19, 2008.
  4. ↑ Crothers, Brooke (August 27, 2012). "Sony to exit PC-use optical drives, say reports". CNET. Retrieved May 22, 2014.
  5. ↑ Carter, White (August 27, 2012). "Sony Optiarc closed, the subsidiary that manufactures optical drives". Technewspedia. Retrieved May 22, 2014.
  6. ↑ Aldershoff, Jan Willem (June 19, 2017). "U.S. Company VinPower Digital Claims to Be Resurrecting Optiarc CD/DVD Burner Brand". Myce.com. Retrieved October 16, 2018.
  7. ↑ "About Us". PioData.com. Vinpower Digital. Retrieved October 16, 2020.
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