With most PCs today shifting to Serial ATA (SATA) hard disk drive interfaces, Samsung Electronics Ltd., the worldwide digital consumer electronics and information technology leader, announces the next breakthrough drive with the introduction of the new WriteMaster SH-S183L: The first 18X Serial ATA DVD burner on the market today. With its SATA interface, the SH-S183L eliminates the need for Master/Slave jumper settings and provides thinner data cables, improving airflow and cable routing. The SH-S183L offers transfer rates of 150MB/s, 300MB/s and 600MB/s, making it one of the fastest drives on the market today. The SH-S183L is shipping nationwide with an Estimated Street Price of $89.99.

Designed for consumers looking for a super-fast DVD burner with advanced technology, the SH-S183L offers 12X DVD-RAM recording, and 8X double layer DVD+R and DVD-R recording. LightScribe technology is also embedded in the DVD drive, letting users engrave labels, photos, and designs right onto the CD and DVD discs with no hassle at all. The SH-S183L is the ideal drive for home users as well as IT professionals for use in enterprise and network storage applications.

“As a technology forerunner, Samsung takes great pride in being the first company on the market to offer our valued consumers new and innovative technological advancements,” said Richard Aguilera, western regional sales manager, Samsung Storage Division. “The new SH-S183L is the world’s first 18X Serial ATA drive and breaks the mold in the industry. With this exciting new drive, Samsung continues its tradition of offering customers high-end, superior quality optical disc drives at affordable prices.”

Utilizing LightScribe technology, the SH-S183L is perfect for use in the home or office, and is easy and simple to use. Users record their preferred data – music, photos, or text – remove the disc after burning is complete, turn it over and the SH-S183L imprints the label, design or photo onto the disc. This one-of-a-kind technology focuses light energy onto a thin dye coating to produce labels. Only LightScribe-ready CDs and DVDs can be inscribed by drives with LightScribe technology.

The SH-S183L features quick 8X double layer recording and fast 12X DVD-RAM recording, providing a five-minute improved RAM writing time over current drives on the market. Using uses Samsung’s Super-WriteMaster technology the Sh-S183L is an advanced triple-format drive that supports DVD+RW, DVD-RW and DVD-RAM recording. While traditional DVD-RW and DVD+RW drives limit media to a 1,000 time re-recording capacity, DVD-RAM drives offer an amazing 100,000 re-recording capability that is more comparable to a hard drive than an optical drive.

The SH-S183L provides users the benefit of many advanced technologies including: Weight Balancing System (WBS) to maximize performance and lower the volume of in use clatter when recording or reading at top speeds; Speed Adjustment Technology, to match the speed to the functionality of the disc; Tilt Actuator Compensation (TAC) for preferred writing condition when interacting with the objective lens; and Double Optimum Power Control, which balances the laser power on the sides of the disc for a better writing performance. Buffer Under Run Error is avoided by the power save attribute.

For more information about Samsung's storage products, please visit the web site at http://www.samsung.com.