Having recently announced one of the industry's first USB 3.0 external HDDs, Buffalo is diversifying its lineup of products that support the new interface. The BR-X1216U3 is an external Blu-ray disc writer drive that supports USB 3.0. The drive has the capability to burn Blu-ray discs at 12x speeds. At those speeds, the drive transfers data at 54 MB/s. Probably factoring protocol overhead, USB 2.0 bottlenecks proper data transfers, and hence USB 3.0 is called on to eliminate all bottlenecks, while also broaden compatibility with existing PCs.

The main unit measures 164 (W) x 50 (H) x 281 (D) mm, and weights 1.8 kg. Both single-layer and double-layer Blu-ray discs can be written at 12x, BD-RE single-layer and double-layer discs at 2x, 16x for single-layer DVD+R/-R, 8x for double-layer DVD+R/-R and DVD+RW, 6x for DVD-RW, 5x for DVD-RAM, 40x for CD-R, and 24x for CD-RW. Bundled software includes CyberLink PowerDirector 8 HE, PowerProducer 5, PowerDVD 9 BD edition, Power2Go 6, PowerBackup 2 and InstantBurn 5. It reaches stores in Japan next month, at a price of US $450.