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Private company

Sony Optiarc

Logo: Optiarc, Non-free logo, via Wikipedia3

American brand of data storage drives

Optiarc is a brand of optical disc drives and solid-state drives. It is owned by a US-based Vinpower Digital, Inc. Initially Optiarc was established on April 3, 2006 as a joint venture between Sony (55% shares) and NEC (45% shares).2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

Apr 3, 2006Founded1

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Optiarc is a brand of optical disc drives and solid-state drives. It is owned by a US-based Vinpower Digital, Inc.2

Products and brands

  • consumer electronics

Listed on Wikidata.1

Products were both DVD+/-R(W) and BD-ROM drives. Among other things, Sony Optiarc supplied the Blu-ray drives for the Sony PlayStation 3. The naming scheme for the drives is as follows: DDU stands for DVD-ROM, AD stands for DVD-RW, BR for BD-ROM and BC for BD Combo. A combo drive is a drive that only supports the newer format in reading and the predecessor in writing. The three digits that follow indicate the generation, the design (5.25" or slimline) and the speed class. The digit after that the equipment variant and the appended letter the interface. An AD-7243S is a 5.25" DVD-RW Drive with 24x speed when writing to DVD-R and DVD+R blanks. It also supports Labelflash. For Lightscribe, a "1" would be in the fourth position. The "S" indicates SATA. An “A” stands for PATA. However, all PATA Optiarc drives are now discontinued.

From Wikipedia’s article on Optiarc, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4

Subsidiaries and ownership

Owners

From Wikidata.1

Timeline

  1. Apr 3, 2006Founded Founded1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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