Release of Controllers Dedicated to Large-Capacity Optical Disk System "PD"

[µPD72052GJ]

NEC has realized production of the optical disk controller in accordance with the "PD" standard (*1), which is regarded to be the most significant candidate for the industry standard of large-capacity optical files and started marketing it today under the name "µPD72052GJ."

The major features of the new product include:

compatibility with the general SCSI-2 (*2) as an interface for external devices for computers and furthermore with the plug-and-play (*3) function which automatically performs hardware setting from the personal computer to the software;
a small-sized and low-priced optical disk drive based on the "PD" standard because the data processing function 12cm phase-change optical disk drive (*4) and CD-ROM drive of 6-fold speed and the SCSI-2 interface control, etc. are packaged in a single chip;
compatibility with the "µPD72051GJ," which was marketed in March last year.

The sample price of the new product is ¥2,000 per unit. The production scale is planned to be 100,000 units monthly after this summer.

Thanks to high-speed performance and progress of multimedia achieved in personal computers in recent years, it has become possible to use mass data such as dynamic images and voice data even for personal uses, which, in turn, has resulted in requiring large-capacity external storage devices. This is why the CD-ROM has rapidly spread thus, together with FDD and HDD, establishing its position as an external storage device indispensable to PCs.

However, the CD-ROM is for playback only and the FDD does not have a sufficient capacity to store large-volume data.

Against the backdrop of these, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.,Ltd released a new optical disk system "PD" capable of rewriting data as large as 650MB and CD-ROM reading as fast as 6 times.

NEC has rapidly supported the proposed plan of this new optical disk system "PD" and started to produce the single-chip PD controller "µPD72051GJ" in March, 1995.

Nevertheless, because the conventional products have been compatible with the extended IDE interface to devices built into PCs, there have been more and more demand for products containing the SCSI-2 function, which is a mainstream interface to external peripheral devices.

The new product has been commercialized to response such needs

Major features of the new product are as follows.

(1) Built-in SCSI-2 interface function to cope with plug-and-play: The host interface is an external device for personal computers and incorporates the general SCSI-2. Furthermore, because it is compatible with the SCSI Configured AutoMatically X3T9.2/93-109r5 (SCAM) which is compatible with the Windows 95 (*5)'s plug-and-play function, it can comprise an external device which can be easily connected to multimedia PCs, which have been growing rapidly recently.
(2) 12cm phase-change optical disk and CD-ROM capable of data processing at 6-fold speed: Because the optical disk system's digital data processing function based on the "PD" standards such as 12cm phase-change optical disk and CD-ROM's decoding and error correction, data buffer control and disk format control, and drive interface control, etc. is incorporated, reduction can be achieved in the number of chips as well as in the costs.
(3) Basic functions shared with conventional NEC products: The new product shares functions other than host interface, with NEC's conventional product "µPD72051GJ" and is compatible with the "PD" drive's data processing software.

With the development of this new product, NEC is considered to sufficiently cope with the market demand for peripheral storage devices in response to the coming multimedia age. Based on this new product, NEC will continue to actively develop factor technologies that realize multimedia as well as corresponding peripheral storage device control LSIs and undertake marketing activities in the fields that need these.

For major features of the new product, please refer to the attachment.

*1: PD

Refers to a new-concept optical disk system which has realized in a single-drive size the two functions of the phase-change rewriting type optical disk (repeated record/playback possible) with storage capacity of 650MB and the CD-ROM 6-fold speed playback, standardized by Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.,Ltd.

*2: SCSI-2

SCSI, which is abbreviated from Small Computer System Interface, was standardized by ANSI in 1986 as an interface to medium-/small-size systems including personal computers as well as to input/output devices including small-size hard-disk drives, cartridge magnetic tape drives, and optical disk drives, etc. SCSI-2 is an extension of the specifications, aimed at achieving multiple functions and high performances.

*3: Plug-and-play

Refers to the function of automatically carrying out all the complicated hardware settings by a software on the computer when connecting peripheral devices to a personal computer.

*4: Phase-change optical disk

Refers to the optical disk of the type performing record/playback by using the reflection rate difference between the crystal state and the amorphous state (non-crystal state) of the recording film. The features include the ability of direct overwriting, simple configuration of the head optical system, and bias magnetic field being unnecessary. The DVD-RAM, which is recently the talk of the trade, has adopted the same system.

*5: Windows are a registered trademark of the U.S. Microsoft Corp. in the United States and other countries.