Sony Optiarc Europe announced today that it will begin shipping its new 24x DVD writer, the AD-7240S, in March of this year. While there aren't a lot of details yet, Optiarc has stated that the Serial ATA equipped AD-7240S will be capable of 24x DVD±R, 12x DVD±R DL and 12x DVD-RAM writing speeds. The drive will also support Optiarc's Auto Strategy and Adaptive Self Tuning technologies which optimize writing quality and performance by compensating for disc and drive variations.
While Optiarc America has not made any official announcements regarding the AD-7240S, sources at the company indicated that the drive will be hitting the North American market about the same time as Europe.