Panasonic has just announced a new internal SATA Blu-ray Disc burner that hits 8x speed when writing to BD-R single layer and dual layer discs. The new unit, dubbed the LF-PB371JD, will launch in Japan on September 13th.
Maximum write speeds include 8x BD-R, 8x BD-R DL, 2x BD-RE, 5x DVD-RAM, 16x DVD+/-R, 8x DVD+/-R DL, 8x/6x DVD+RW/-RW, 48x CD-R and 24x CD-RW. The drive has an 8MB buffer and also supports 8x Blu-ray Disc read speeds.
The LF-PB371JD is able to achieve 8x write speeds with Panasonic 6x BD-R discs. Recording a full 25GB BD-R disc at 8x will take approximately 14 minutes, with a 50GB BD-R DL clocking in at about 28 minutes. It is unclear whether or not other BD-R media types will be supported at 8x. If you'd like to read the official Panasonic announcement, check it out here.
