EZWriter brings affordable CD Production for every A1200

	Eyetech Group Ltd
	Amiga Product Notes		EZWriter brings affordable CD production to every A1200 Back up your data in multiple sessions ... Make your own audio disks... Archive your digitized photos to CDROM ... all for less than 0.16 pence per megabyte!

	Product: CDR-PL-4208 EZReWriter Gold		Product: CDRW-IN-2216 EZReWriter (internal) for Tower, A4000
	I thought CD Writers were expensive specialist items? 'Burning' a gold CD was considered a specialist and expensive process on any platform until quite recently. However, as the demand for cost effective CD writers (on the PC) has risen, the price of the writer mechanisms (which also function as conventional CDROMs) has fallen dramatically. This, coupled with the release of fully functional, yet cost-effective CD writing software for the Amiga - such as MakeCD - has made the provision of low-cost CD writer units for the Amiga a real possibility. Eyetech has worked closely with the authors of MakeCD to turn this possibility into a fully functional, low-cost CD writing system for the Amiga - the Eyetech EZReWriter. SCSI or IDE? Although the first CD writers to be made were SCSI devices, this was largely for historical rather than performance reasons. CD writers were regarded as tools for specialists, and those specialists tended to have SCSI-equipped computers, whether on MAC, PC or Amiga platforms. But SCSI cards are unnecessarily expensive, particularly for CD writers which have quite low data rate demands - as low as 150 KB/s. These data rates can easily be handled by the IDE port (which typically transfers around 1.5 MB/s or greater) of a relatively basic A1200 with, say, just an 030/33+8MB accelerator. With higher performance processors the Amiga can easily multitask - e.g. maintain an interactive Internet connection - whilst writing an ISO image to the IDE-connected EZWriter. In one of the most severe CD writing tests we could think of, we wrote a 120MB session to an EZWriter connected to the Amiga side of a Siamese Ethernet system using 'on the fly' data transfer from drives on the PC side. This test was completely successful - and at the first attempt! However you should note that the performance characteristics of the CDROM means that it can never really be considered a substitute for a hard drive - even in its rewritable form. It is best used as a medium for archiving data (ie for back ups) or for distributing programs or multimedia files to other computer users.		In both these applications the 'gold' disk - costing less than �1 for 650MB of storage - is by far the most cost effective. In addition, gold disks can be read by virtually every CD-ROM in use today, whereas CD-rewritable disks cannot usually be read by older CDROM drives. CD gold disks can of course be written to many times in different 'sessions' up to the limit of their 650MB capacity. All EZReWriters are capable of burning 'gold' disks as well as CDReWritable disks. Which model is best for me? If you have an Amiga Tower or MiniTower/Desktop internal IDE/ATAPI CDROM or a CDPlus (not -SE) external unit, then all you need is the internal EZWriter upgrade kit. Simply substitute the EZWriter for your existing CDROM drive, install the software and start burning! If you have a stand alone CDROM - other than a MT/DT or CDPlus - which you are considering upgrading, please note that you will need to ensure that its power supply is rated at least 40 watts due to the higher power requirements of a CDReWriter unit. Most external CDROM units are shipped with PSUs rated at 17-20 watts which is completely unsuitable for CDReWriter units. If you do not have a CD-ROM to upgrade, then your options are: EZWriter-Gold Low profile, external unit with PSU EZReWriter-MT/DT Mini-Tower or Desktop case, which can also power your Amiga and house additional drives EZReWriter-FT Plus Full EZ-Tower-Plus and EZReWriter bundle (with keyboard adapter, Win95 keyboard) In all cases you will also need a buffered interface, cables and ATAPI driver software. If you do not have these already we can supply cables, ATAPI software and EZCD-SE buffered interface for special prices if ordered at the same time as purchasing your EZWriter system. The concluding remark in the review of a rival CD writing system in the October edition of Cu Amiga is “For my money I would opt for the Eyetech (EZWriter) system . .. . “ Need we say more?