ABOUT PLEXTOR
Plextor is a subsidiary of the Shinano Kenshi Company (SKC), Ltd.
SKC’s roots stretch back to 1918, when it began to manufacture textiles in Japan’s
northern prefecture of Nagano. (Nagano, incidentally, will be the site of the 1998
Winter Olympics.) SKC’s involvement in the electronics industry started in 1962, when
it diversified into the production of stepper motors for commercial audio products.
SKC is now one of the world’s largest manufacturers of small motors used in hard
disks, floppy disks, tape drives, copy machines, video cameras ---- and your Plextor
CD-ROM drive.
Over the past decade SKC has developed a reputation as an innovator in compact
disc and CD-ROM technology. In 1992 it was the second company to begin shipments
of double-speed CD-ROM drives. In 1994, it was the first company to begin shipments
of half-height quad speed CD-ROM drives. SKC also is a leading manufacturer of
compact disc players used for industrial and commercial applications (e.g., back-
ground music players for retail stores, restaurants and shopping centers).
Plextor acts as SKC’s sales, service and support arm throughout the world. In addition
to CD-ROM drives, Plextor also sells under its own label professional audio equipment
used by radio stations, high-speed printing presses, and a CD encoding system
developed by SKC that can pack up to eight hours of audio onto a single compact disc.
Plextor’s home office is located in Tokyo. Plextor first opened an office in California’s
Silicon Valley in 1990. Rapid growth has required it to move twice since then to larger
offices. Plextor now occupies a 30,000 sq. ft. facility in Santa Clara, CA, which is
staffed by sales, marketing, technical support, engineering, administrative and ship-
ping personnel. It’s European office (located in Brussels) began operation in 1994.
The PX-43CH and PX-45CH represent the fifth generation of CD-ROM drives that SKC
has brought to the market through Plextor. In addition to stand alone CD-ROM drives,
Plextor also sells drives in kit, bundle and tower (4-bay and 7-bay) configurations.
Plextor’s CD-ROM Drives
Model
Introduced
Data
Transfer Rate
Access
Speed
Buffer
Size
1st generation
DM-3020/5020
1990
150KB/sec
430ms
64K
2nd generation DM-3021/5021
1991
150KB/sec
340ms
64K
3rd generation DM-3024/5024
1992
300KB/sec
265ms
64K
4th generation DM-3028/5028
1993
335KB/sec
240ms
64K
5th generation PX-43CH/45CH
1994
600KB/sec
220ms
1MB
68
PX-43CH/PX-45CH OPERATION MANUAL
