My Philips OmniWriter is from 1997-1998, whenever the price point came down to my magic $399.00 trip-wire. Before the OmniWriter, a refurb PowerCD was my only optical drive.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD-R'>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD-RW'>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD-RW

With an intro date of 1997, that places CD-RW firmly into the 603e/604e/G3 transitional era.

More interesting article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD-R

Fascinating article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD