The Next Step, Hi-Speed USB 2.0

Results - Test 2b, Stage 2

Test 2a, Stage 2 - Results of the CD burning test with a Plextor 2410A mounted in the Impulse cage and attached to a USB 2.0 port.

True to form, the Plextor kicked out its max transfer speed of 24x. You may wonder why the graph is a stair step and not a diagonal line as seen in the DAE tests. CD speed reported that the drive was running in P-CAV mode. The graph does represent P-CAV results; P-CAV results would look more like the results from Test 1, Stage 3. The stair step results look more like Z-CAV mode. Z-CAV, or Zoned Constant Linear Velocity, is when the drive transfers at a certain rate depending on the location of the laser on the disc. The results show that, for the first 2 minutes, the drive is burning at 16x, and then it starts to ramp up to 20x. From the six-minute mark to the twelve-minute mark, the drive writes at 20x. At about the twelve-minute mark, the drive ramps up to full write speed. At sixteen minutes into the disc, the drive is burning at 24x.

Results - Test 2b, Stage 3

Test 2a, Stage 3 - Results of the CD burning test with a Plextor 2410A attached to an IDE channel.

On this test, USB 2.0 beat out the IDE controller by 0.5%. Being less than 1%, the difference isn't much to talk about, but it shows that USB 2.0 is a real product and it has the bandwidth to back it up.