Philips delivers chipset and reference design for industry's highest-speed DVD+RW recording
New DVD+R/RW processor and chipset support recording speeds of up to 8x and integrate pioneering technology to minimize recording errors
Royal Philips Electronics (NYSE:PHG, AEX:PHI) today announced a highly integrated chipset, optical pickup unit (OPU), firmware and reference design for the industry's highest-speed DVD+R/RW (DVD+Recordable/ ReWriteable) recorders. This means that optical drive manufacturers targeting the PC industry can bring consumer products to market quickly. The Philips DVD design also incorporates new technology to minimize recording errors caused by common disk defects such as fingerprints. The software and chipset, based on Philips NexperiaTM streaming media technology, will allow consumers to create 4.7 GByte DVDs of home videos, photo albums and PC data in less than 15 minutes or half the time of existing drives.
Designed primarily for PC use, the Nexperia DVD+R/RW system solution is capable of supporting record speeds up to 8x. This leap forward in recording speed is achieved by a new approach to optical recorder design: Philips moved the write strategy generator (WSG) to the same board as the laser driver, eliminating the data bottleneck that limited recording speed. The new design also supports disk reading during the record process, which in turn supports a Philips innovation, eliminating most recording errors caused by common defects on the disc surface, and ensures higher levels of compatibility with legacy DVD players.
"Of the DVD recording formats available today, DVD+R/RW has the most long-term market potential due to its solid format and features," said Tim Bajarin, president, Creative Strategies. "Devices incorporating this technology will be poised for steadfast growth."
"Based on our proven expertise in optical storage technology, Philips is No. 1 in the DVD+RW chip market," said John Benson, global marketing manager, Philips Semiconductors. "The high-speed recording and defect compensation technology are features that consumers will demand in their DVD recorders."
The Philips chipset includes the PNX7850 main processor, the TZA1039 analog processor and the TZA1047 laser power controller. The entire system is designed to work with Philips OPU66.20.
Availability
A sample kit, including a PNX7850 DVD processor, TZA1039 analog processor, TZA1047 laser power controller and an OPU66.20 optical pickup unit, is available now. Volume production is scheduled for Q1, 2003. Please visit markets/computing/dvd/ for more information.
About DVD+R/RW
DVD+R/RW is the compatible, rewritable DVD format developed by the DVD+RW Group - an organization of industry-leading personal computing, optical storage and electronics manufacturers including Dell, HP, MCC/Verbatim, Philips, Ricoh, Sony, Thomson Multimedia and Yamaha. The DVD format is supported by the DVD+R/RW Alliance, a voluntary group of more than 50 industry-leading personal computing manufacturers, optical storage and electronics manufacturers that have pledged their support for the DVD+R/RW formats. The DVD+R/RW standards are the only DVD standard that has received full read and write support from Microsoft. DVD+R/RW has significant advantages over other DVD recording formats such as loss less linking - the ability to stop and start recording at any point, without time-consuming finalization, and no interruption or loss of data. DVD+R and DVD+RW discs can be read and played in the vast majority of existing DVD drives.
About Philips
Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands is one of the world's biggest electronics companies and Europe's largest, with sales of $ 28.8 billion (EUR 32.3 billion) in 2001. It is a global leader in color television sets, lighting, electric shavers, medical diagnostic imaging and patient monitoring, and one-chip TV products. Its 184,000 employees in more than 60 countries are active in the areas of lighting, consumer electronics, domestic appliances, components, semiconductors, and medical systems. Philips is quoted on the NYSE (symbol: PHG), London, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and other stock exchanges. News from Philips is located at www.semiconductors.philips.com.