FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 17 October 2001
October 31, 2001 update - now supports Windows XP!

Bothell, WA...Software Architects, Inc. (SAI) announced today the release of “ReadCD-MRW!™ v1.0 Reader Utility for MS Windows 98,ME, 2000 and XP which is available free (see link below). “ReadCD-MRW!™ v2.0 which supports all Windows platforms is available bundled with SAI’s WriteCD-RW!™, the drag & drop utility for CD-RW drives.

Cost Free Transition to CD-MRW for End Users
Making this “world’s first” reader utility widely available at no cost to end users will help accelerate consumer acceptance of new “CD-MRW” drives”, stated Robert Zollo, President of SAI. CD-MRW technology is being promoted by the Mt. Rainier Group and is expected to be widely adopted by a majority of CD-RW manufacturers. The new drives are expected to become available in Q4 of 2001. The Mt. Rainier Group’s founding members include Compaq, Sony, Philips and Microsoft. The organization has registered nearly 50 companies who are developing hardware and software products in support of this initiative. SAI was the first company in the world to commercialize software that supports the CD-MRW specification.

Solving the Disk Compatibility Problem
CD-RW disks formatted in the new “Mt. Rainier” CD-MRW format are not readable in legacy, non-Mt. Rainier drives. The Mt. Rainier Format uses the UDF File System (see below), but imposes special rules and restrictions on where data is physically layed out/stored on the disk and where disk defects are re-directed. These rules and restrictions are intended to help extend the life of a CD-RW disk which has an advertized maximum of 1,000 overwrites. ReadCD-MRW! provides everything you need to mount these disks and intreprets this layout so that files can be read. The software supports most CD-ROM, CD-RW, DVD-ROM, DVD-RAM and DVD-R drives that use MMC-2 compliant command sets.

Easy to Use:
ReadCD-MRW! installs in MS Windows as a special “filter” driver. If a CD-RW disk formatted in the “Mt. Rainier” CD-MRW format is placed in a standard CD-ROM, CD-RW or DVD-ROM drive, the reader driver automatically recognizes the disk and presents the data portion of the disk to Windows Explorer as a “read only” UDF format disk. If a CD-RW disk is formatted in any other format, the ReadCD-MRW! driver will allow other software to handle the disk. The software is compatible with most popular mastering applications for CD-RW.

UDF Compatibility with Industry Standards
ReadCD-MRW! for MS Windows fully complies with the Mt. Rainier specifications v1.1. The software is also compatible with other SAI utilities including WriteCD-RW! for Windows and Mac. WriteCD-RW! reads and writes to CD-RW disks formatted in OSTA compliant UDF and is compatible with Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac OS UDF readers. WriteCD-RW!™ is the only utility that can ensure read compatibility of CD-RW disks between Apple Macintosh and Windows computer systems using UDF. ReadCD-MRW!UDF file system is OSTA (Optical Storage Technology Association) UDF compliant and supports the Mt. Rainier Group format specifications (a proprietary format that includes the UDF format as part of its requirements).

What is the UDF Format?
UDF stands for the “Universal Disk Format” and file system. It is the key software technology underlying Optical disk format standard for digital convergence. Based on the International Standards Organization’s (ISO) ISO-13346 standard, the UDF format ensures that disks can be properly used on all types of computer systems as well as future consumer digital appliances. UDF is fast becoming the industry standard for CD-RW technology drives, and other mass storage devices. UDF is now specified for use in CD-MRW drives by the Mt. Rainier Group, and in future DVD+RW drives specified by the DVD+RW Alliance.

Advantages of UDF file format include:

• Operating system independence: UDF is the optimal archival medium.
• Larger capacity: The UDF file system can store data to the terabyte level in a single volume
• Optimized data transfer rates: Read and write speeds of UDF formatted disks can outperform data transfer rates of native file systems when transferring larger files that are common with multimedia applications.
• Supports Unicode character set for compatibility with foreign language systems
• Supports extended file attributes used in some native operating systems.
• Supports long file names beyond the limits of current operating systems.
• Adopted by leading OS vendors as the next generation replacement for the ISO 9660 file system and format used on CD-Rom drives.
• Required for use with DVD video files.

About CD-MRW Drives
CD-MRW drives are the next generation CD-RW drives designed to enhance the reliability, ease of use, and capability of CD-RW drives so they may become adopted as the high capacity replacement for floppy disk drives. The drives provide for background formatting of media, defect management for data integrity, and a special format that includes UDF for the data portion of the disk to ensure disk and file interchange between computer systems. The benefits of CD-MRW specification drives include: faster formatting, easy to use “drag & drop” interface, higher reliability and data integrity through the use of drive defect management, and reliable disk interchange between computer systems.
The CD-MRW specification is published by the Mt. Rainier Group, a consortium consisting of Compaq, Sony, Philips and Microsoft. The Mt. Rainier Group controls the specifications for CD-MRW drives. For more information see www.mt-rainier.org

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