Submitted by: sbt
Source: http://www.eet.com/
At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) today, TDK Electronics announced that later this year it will debut a new generation of CD-ROM rewritable (CD-RW) drives that will use MultiLevel Recording technology to achieve a threefold improvement in storage capacity and recording speed over conventional CD-RW drives. |
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According to TDK, ML technology will allow up to 2 Gbytes of data to be recorded at rates of up to 36X on specially formulated $2 ML blank discs, with up to 700 Mbytes of data on standard CD-RW discs at 12X rates. This is at least three times the capacity of current technology. TDK plans to scale this quickly to 2.6, then 3.2 Gbytes.
Key to the technology is the fact that it is IC-based, meaning no changes are required to the optics or hardware, beyond the addition of an extra IC to current drives '” though special media are required. Mitsubishi has already developed a rewritable phase-change disc.
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Though the technology leads to a massive improvement in storage capability, according to Kuni Matsui, president of TDK, the technology is not intended as a replacement for DVD, but more as a low-cost bridge to extend the capabilities of low-cost CD technology for a number of years to come. "Eventually, however," said Matsui, "ML technology will migrate to the DVD platform."
TDK plans to introduce drives this fall, along with a write-once disc. The company envisions not only 2-Gbyte, 120-mm ML discs, but also megapixel digital video cameras with built-in 80-mm ML drives that can store hundreds of uncompressed images on a single 650-Mbyte disc. Also, portable digital audio players could be designed to accept 60-mm ML discs with 200 Mbytes of storage for more than three hours of MP3 music '” at a fraction of the cost of flash memory.
Cheap alternative for DVD, could be interesting...where can I order these IC's
