Pioneer to launch Blu-ray optical drive in January

Licensing issues still unsolved

By Martyn Williams

December 27, 2005 12:00 PM ET

Recommended

IDG News Service - Pioneer Corp. plans to unveil its first Blu-ray Disc (BD) format optical disc drive for PCs at the upcoming International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the company said today. The drive will go on sale in Japan at the end of January, provided that two licensing issues are resolved, and is scheduled to be available in the U.S. during the first quarter of 2006.
The BDR-101A drive is compatible with noncartridge, single-layer recordable BD-R and rewritable BD-RW discs, and single and dual-layer read-only BD-ROM discs, the company said. It is also compatible with a wide range of DVD-based media and can write DVD-R and DVD-RW discs, Pioneer said.
The company plans to initially offer the product direct to Japanese PC makers for inclusion in their desktop computers and systems and will later expand sales to other countries, said Akira Muneto, a spokesman for Pioneer in Tokyo. PCs on the market boasting Blu-ray Disc support could appear in the first half of 2006, he said.
The drive will have an ATAPI interface that delivers a data transfer rate of 33MB/sec., Muneto said. It is a standard "half-height" size, measures 14.8mm wide by 42mm high by 198mm deep and weighs 1.1 kilograms.
The company did not specify pricing for the drive or plans to sell it direct to consumers.
Pioneer is the first optical disc drive maker to announce a shipping date for such a product, although the company's January schedule may be derailed by a delay in the licensing of the content management system or the Blu-ray Disc logo, it said.
The inability of the companies behind the Advanced Access Content System (AACS) content management system to complete their work has already caused Toshiba Corp. to put launch plans for its HD-DVD player on hold. The AACS group is made up of a number of companies from the electronics and content industries. The group's founders include IBM, Intel Corp., Microsoft Corp., Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. (Panasonic), Sony Corp., Toshiba Corp., The Walt Disney Co. and Warner Bros.
The group has declined several requests for an interview or comments about when the first version of its format will be completed.
The CES runs in Las Vegas from Jan. 5 to Jan. 8.

Reprinted with permission from

IDG.net
Story copyright 2009 International Data Group. All rights reserved.

Recommend Digg Twitter ShareThis

Email Print Send Feedback Reprints

Jump to comments

Storage

Additional Resources

Xerox

Win a color printer!

By using solid ink technology only from Xerox, you could save up to 65% by printing color for the cost of black and white. Enter for a chance to WIN a PhaserTM 8860 network color printer!

Microsoft

Upgrade to Internet Explorer 8 today.

Save time and mitigate security risk. Deploy it now.

Sybase

NEXT-GENERATION MOBILITY PLATFORMS

In this white paper, IDC analyzes the role of next-generation mobile enterprise platforms as organizations seek a more strategic deployment of mobile solutions.

Learn the important issues you must consider before starting your next mobility initiative. Get your mobility white paper from IDC now, compliments of Sybase.

White Papers & Webcasts

Informatica 9 Launch: Transform your Business. Transform your world.

LIVE Nov 10, 2009 12:00 PM ET

Architecting Business Intelligence Applications for Change: The Open Solution

LIVE Nov 12, 2009 02:00 PM ET

Connecting to the Cloud with F5 and VMware VMotion
F5 and VMware partner to enable live application and storage migrations between datacenters and clouds, over short or long distances.

Data Protection is not an insurance policy -you cannot buy-back lost data
Find out why you need to maintain access to critical information to run your business and remain competitive.

SiliconFS - The BlueArc Filesystem
Learn the power of the BlueArc family of products to enterprise storage management features, providing real value for its customers.

Strategic ECM Webinar
Learn what new strategic business benefits can be realized through ECM!

Enabling Enterprise Class Features for the Mid-Range
Learn how BlueArc's new storage platform, BlueArc Mercury™, scales in fixed increments that make it easy to install and deploy, scales up to...

Rethinking Business Continuity and High Availability in Storage - HP and Forrester Pre-Recorded Webcast
Download it.

Tabor Research: NFS Evolution Changes the Landscape of HPC Data Management
A hybrid file system combining the benefits of standard NFS and the performance and scale of parallel file systems.

5 Architecture Issues that Impact BES performance
Register to attend this LIVE Webinar to learn 5 Architecture Issues that Impact BES performance!

Intelligent Tiered Storage: BlueArc's Implementation
This ESG White Paper discusses the importance of tiered storage, examines BlueArc's approach to intelligent tiering, and shows how it creates operational value...

Four Principles for Reducing Storage TCO
View cost reduction strategies in this video! Provided by Hitachi Data Systems.

All White Papers | All Webcasts