Hitachi-LG Data Storage Develop the Industry's First 4x Blu-ray Disc Drive

TOKYO -July 25, 2006 - Hitachi-LG Data Storage (under CEO Kazuya Hori) has developed the half-height Blu-ray disc drive GBW-H10N for built-in use in PCs that achieves 4x high-speed recording for the first time in the industry. Production is slated to begin in late July 2006.

This product or so-called super-multi Blu-ray disc drive can record and play back Blu-ray format discs BD-R and BD-RE, play back BD-ROM, record and play back all-format DVDs (DVD-RAM/R/RW, +R/RW), as well as CD-R and CD-RW, and play back DVD-ROM and CD-ROM.

• Outline of 4x Blu-ray Disc Recording Drive "Super Multi Blue GBW-H10N"

Product Model Shipping Remarks
Blu-ray disc drive GBW-H10N OEM for built-in use in PCs (with ATAPI interface) July 2006 product

The GBW-H10N can record and play back 25GB large-capacity Blu-ray discs BD-R and BD-RE suitable for storing high-quality images. For BD-R in particular, this product achieves quadrupled data transfer speed as fast as 144 Mbps for the first time in the industry. Video data saved on a HDD can be transferred to a disc and a large volume of data backed up in a short time. Moreover, the BD-RE 2x recording speed is realized as the currently highest speed in the industry.

Also for DVD/CD other than Blu-ray discs, the GBW-H10N provides recording and playback functions similar to those of the HLDS conventional super-multi disc drive. Only with this drive can you enjoy 12 types of BD/DVD/CD discs.

By combining the technologies of affiliates, HLDS commercialized the product through comprehensive development starting from key components to the final end product. To support BD/DVD/CD in particular, HLDS newly developed a highly functional optical head and a DSP (1) capable of high-level signal processing in support of various recording formats. In addition to these key components, the LD driver with write strategy, buffer underrun error prevention, and many other technologies accumulated in conventional super-multi drive development were adopted to ensure very stable recording and playback.

The main technologies developed and employed to realize this drive are as follows:

• 4x High-speed Recording (Blu-ray Disc)
  Laser driver IC for data transfer speed as fast as 144 Mbps was developed, with a high-output blue laser to accommodate the quadrupled speed employed, and the write-strategy optimized to realize 4x recording on BD-R (SL). Thus, the recording time is reduced by half of that of 2x recording.
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• CAV High-speed Playback Up to 4.8x (Blu-ray Disc)
  The adaptive equalization and adaptive Viterbi decoding of high-speed playback signals achieves low-error playback. As a result, BD-ROM and BD-R (closed disc) can be played back using 4.8x CAV even faster than recording.
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• Highly functional Pickup and DSP
  The recording and playback of various discs were realized by developing a new single-lens 3LD pickup capable of recording and playing BD, DVD, and CD and a new highly integrated, highly functional DSP that integrates conventional DVD and CD signal processing, as well as BD signal processing.
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ABOUT HITACHI-LG DATA STORAGE, INC.
Hitachi-LG Data Storage, Inc. is a joint company of Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE:HIT) and LG Electronics, Inc. that started its business in January 2001. We develop and sell optical data storage disc drives for PC OEM and keep top share in the world. Our main products are DVD writable drives, DVD-ROM drives, CD-RW drives, CD-ROM drives and its combination drives. Development sites are located in Tokyo (Japan) and in Pyungtaik (Korea).

Main Specifications

 1. Interface ATAPI (Enhanced IDE Interface) 2. Buffer Memory Size 4Mbytes 3. Recording Speed BD BD-R SL 4x BD-RE SL 2x DVD DVD-R SL Max. 12x PCAV DL 4x DVD-RW 6x DVD-RAM 3-5x (PCAV) +R/RW +R SL Max. 12x PCAV DL 4x +RW 8x (ZCLV) CD CD-R 8x CD-RW 10x 4. Reading Speed BD BD-R SL Max. 4.8x BD-RE SL 2x BD-ROM SL Max. 4.8x DL Max. 4x DVD DVD-ROM SL Max. 16x DL Max. 8x DVD-R SL Max. 10x DL Max. 8x DVD-RW Max. 10x DVD-RAM 3-5x (PCAV) +R/RW +R SL Max. 10x DL Max. 8x +RW Max. 10x CD CD-ROM/R Max. 40x CD-RW Max. 40x 5. Reading Disc Type BD BD-ROM (SL 25GB), (DL 50GB) BD-R (SL 25GB) (Ver.1.1) BD-RE (SL 25GB) (Ver.2.1) DVD DVD-ROM DVD-R(Ver. 2.1 for General), DVD-R DL(Dual Layer), DVD-RW, DVD-RAM(Ver.2.2), +R/RW DVD+R, DVD+R DL(Double Layer), DVD+RW CD CD-ROM, CD-ROM XA, CD-I, Video CD, CD-Extra, CD-TEXT Photo CD, CD-DA, Super Audio CD, CD-R, CD-RW 6. Recording Disc Type BD BD-R (SL 25GB) (Ver.1.1) BD-RE(SL 25GB) (Ver.2.1) DVD DVD-R SL 1.46GB/4.7GB (Ver. 2.1 for General) DL 8.5GB (Ver. 3.0) DVD-RW 1.46GB/4.7GB (Ver. 1.2/ Rev 1.0, 2.0, 3.0) DVD-RAM 1.46GB/side, 4.7GB/side (Ver.2.2) +R/RW DVD+R SL 4.7GB (Ver. 1.3) DL 8.5GB (Ver. 1.1) DVD+RW 4.7GB (Vol. 1/Ver.1.3, Vol. 2/Ver.1.0) CD CD-R discs conforming to "Orange Book Part 2" CD-RW discs conforming to "Orange Book Part 3" 7. Recording mode BD BD-R: Sequential Recording Mode with Pseudo-Overwrite Sequential Recording Mode without Pseudo-Overwrite BD-RE: Random Recording DVD DVD-R: Disc-At-Once, Incremental Recording DVD-R DL: Disc at Once, Incremental Recording, Layer Jump Recording DVD-RW : Disc-At-Once, Incremental Recording Restricted Overwrite DVD-RAM : Random Recording +R/RW DVD+R : Sequential Recording DVD+R DL: Sequential Recording DVD+RW : Random Recording CD CD-R/RW : Disc-At-Once, Track-At-Once, Session-At-Once, Packet Write 8. Installation Horizontal, Vertical 9. Power Requirement DC +5V, +12V 10. Dimension 146 (W) x 200(D) x 41.3(H) mm(w/o Bezel) 11. Weight Approx. 970g