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Volume 28 (Sep 30, 2004)
The advent of 16x speed rewritable DVD drives
An era of speed and added value
DVDs have deeply permeated ordinary households as a media for viewing movies and packaged software. In particular, DVD recorders with which users can record TV programs with high resolution have recently gained great popularity. At the same time, progress has been made toward increasing multifunctionality and performance in the PC sector, for which it is said that permeation has reached the point where most households now own more than one PC. It is now standard for PCs to come equipped with a function that can be used to edit moving image data shot with a device such as a digital still camera (DSC) or digital video camera (DVC). Moreover, the use of a 650MB CD-R, which was up until now used to back up data, is no longer sufficient for saving moving image data to media. Accordingly, PC manufacturers have begun equipping their products with CD playback functions, CD recording functions, DVD playback functions, and DVD recording functions for the purpose of product differentiation.
Rewritable DVD drive manufacturers now find themselves in the midst of a "speed war." If we assume that the playback speed of an ordinary music CD is 1x, then it follows that a CD recording speed of 52x can be achieved. Similarly, DVDs are caught up in their own speed war. The majority of rewritable DVD drives currently on the market have a speed of 8x (Figure 1).
Introducing the Industry's First System LSI for 16x Speed Rewritable DVD Drives
NEC Electronics has introduced a chipset (µPD63635 and µPC3335, see Photo 1) for DVD dual convertible drives that supports 16x recording speed-the fastest in the industry*-in DVD±R format.
* As of June 22, 2004
The µPC3335 is an RF analog signal processor (ASP) that controls laser output and detects servo signals for the optical pickup unit. The µPD63635 digital signal processor (DSP) has an ATAPI interface-the industry-wide standard-and is used to carry out data processing tasks such as encoding and error correction (Figure 2). The advantage of these two products is that they are compatible with all current DVD standards: DVD±R, DVD±RW recording and playback, and DVD-RAM playback.
What lies in store for rewritable DVD drives?
By taking the lead in the DVD drive speed war, NEC Electronics has thus far been able to meet the needs of its customers. In the future, we will continue to serve the specific needs of laptop computer manufacturers by decreasing LSI power consumption and conserving space through one-chip integration (Figure 3). In addition to the provision of reference boards and software, we offer a vast array of solutions that meet the diverse needs of our customers.
In collaboration with the development department in charge of developing image and sound processing system LSI chips for home-use DVD recorders, which currently hold a large share in the industry, NEC Electronics is actively pursuing the development of products that can be employed in new applications such as DVD camcorders and car navigation systems. Our company has already established an excellent track record with our customers in these sectors, and we are aiming to capitalize on the know-how we have accumulated thus far. Furthermore, to enable our customers to quickly address market needs for high-definition broadcast recording, we plan to take on the challenge of creating products that are compliant with optical disks that use blue lasers.
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