CDRLabs finishes up the week with a review of Lite-On's new 4x BD-ROM drive, the iHOS104. Affordably priced, this read-only drive gives consumers the ability to watch Blu-ray movies on their computers. Along with 4x BD read speeds, the iHOS104 is capable of reading DVD's at 8x and CD's at 32x. The drive also comes with CyberLink's PowerDVD software, which can play back both Blu-ray Discs and standard DVD's in high-def

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Buffalo Japan has definitely been on a roll lately. The company not only introduced the industry's first 10x Blu-ray Disc writers, they've now announced a portable unit that can write at 6x. The BR-PX68U2-BK is capable of 6x BD-R, 6x BD-R DL, 4x BD-R DL, 2x BD-RE and 2x BD-RE DL writing speeds and a maximum BD-ROM read speed of 6x. The drive is also backwards compatible with all DVD and CD formats and can be powered off a computer's USB bus or the included AC adapter. The BR-PX68U2-BK is expected to ship in early November for a suggested retail price of 31,700 Yen ($350US).

pureSilicon™ Inc.  is now shipping Renegade™ R2, its latest generation of ruggedized solid-state drives (SSD), designed to deliver uncompromised performance in the harshest conditions. Renegade R2 Series SSDs offer enhanced read and write speeds (sequential read: 255MB/s; sequential write: 180MB/s), improved IOPS (random read: 18,000 IOPS @ 4K; random write: 1,200 IOPS @ 4K) and proprietary SiPher™ data security technology. The drives are available immediately in a wide range of densities (4GB, 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, 64GB, 128GB) with SATA II configuration, in a low profile (9.5mm height) 2.5-inch form factor. 256GB, PATA, 1.8-inch form factor, and encryption versions will start shipping in Q1 2010.

"pureSilicon is dedicated to providing high-performance, rugged storage solutions to the defense, military, industrial, and government markets," said Jason Breakstone, founder and CEO of pureSilicon. "While many SSD manufacturers are focusing their efforts on the mass consumer markets, pureSilicon is committed to designing and delivering technologies that will provide significant benefits to our customers such as full-disk encryption and data declassification methods. Renegade R2 is designed to operate in the harshest conditions."

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According to various reports, the U.S. Justice Department has begun to look into possible violations of antitrust law in the optical disc drive industry. Along with Sony Optiarc America, Hitachi and Toshiba have now received subpoenas from the DOJ which is seeking information about the companies' optical disk drive businesses.

Japanese technology giants Hitachi Ltd. and Toshiba Corp. said Tuesday that, like Sony Corp., their optical disk drive operations in the U.S. have received subpoenas from the Department of Justice in a widening investigation into potential antitrust violations.

According to a person familiar with the investigation, the Justice Department started a criminal antitrust probe into the market for optical disk drives in recent months, investigating disk-drive makers for possible price-fixing, bid-rigging and allocation of markets. As well as featuring in personal computers, optical disk drives are used in everyday consumer products like DVD and Blu-ray disk players.