With record and playback speeds set to match even the fastest CD-ROM drives of today and of the near future, drive manufacturers are turning to quality software utilities that can measure and test performance. Nero Toolkit, featuring CD and DVD Speed, leads all utilities into the future of CD recording. Following the quality and success of Nero CD Recording software, the Nero Toolkit promises to continue that tradition with a complete suite of utilities comprising four different applications: Nero CD Speed, Nero DVD Speed, Nero Drive Speed, and the latest addition, the Nero Info Tool. While designing the latest high-speed CD recordable and DVD drives, many of the world's leading drive manufacturers praise Nero for helping them raise the speed stakes.

``There is little doubt Nero CD Speed sets the standard in testing software,'' says Akira Tsukihashi, Manager, Writable Product Division, Sanyo Information & Telecommunications, HQ, ``Sanyo has been leading the optical industry in high speed CD recording, and the Nero applications have been a significant link as we continue to break the speed barriers.''

``In the development of our 24X and future 32X CD Recording systems, Nero CD Speed has been our standard reference benchmark for all our performance testing,'' said Masatoshi Watanabe, Chief Engineer of Optical Disc Systems Division, Mitsumi Japan 'We welcome very much the addition of further utilities to aid our development process``

Hiroshi Kondo, Manager, IT Sales & Marketing Division, Yamaha Japan says,`` ''For CDRW drive performance and benchmarking, the Nero utilities are applications we trust and can rely on for accurate testing.``

``To get exact performance on CD-ROMs, CD-Rewriters and DVD-ROMs, NERO CD/DVD Speed is always my first choice,'' says Chien Liang, Sales Engineer, Optical Electronics Products, AOpen Taiwan. ``Based on past experience, Nero Info Tool will be the next standard technical analysis tool on all my drives.''

Nero engineer and Toolkit developer Erik Deppe said, ``It's very rewarding that so many of the world's leading drive manufacturers are using the Nero utilities to raise the CD Recording speed stakes. As with all Nero products, we are naturally committed to further enhancing their functionality in line with the great advances we are seeing in CDR/DVD technology.''

Nero Toolkit is an indispensable utility suite used by everyone from CD/CDR/DVD drive manufactures to the average PC user. It is available free of charge for download from www.cdspeed2000.com and www.nero.com