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With digital video disk systems selling faster than any other consumer-electronics item in history, consumer OEMs are doing the natural thing: They're eating their young. Nine companies gathered in Tokyo last week to announce the successor to DVD technology, the Blu-ray Disc, a far denser, blue-violet laser-based medium that is not compatible with its wildly successful ancestor. All nine also are steering committee members of the DVD Forum but have opted to conduct the Bluray work outside of the DVD Forum.
Conspicuously absent from the Blu-ray roster is DVD Forum leader and DVD format pioneer Toshiba Corp., which reportedly had been invited to join but demurred, asserting that the work ought to be conducted under the auspices of the forum. With the DVD Forum headed for its annual general meeting at month's end and nine of the 17 steering committee members pursuing Blu-ray, there may be some locking of horns over the forum's future direction. It is possible that the focus could shift to the Blu-ray format by majority vote.
The proposed format uses a blue-violet laser, a 0.1-mm protection layer and a lens with a numerical aperture (NA) of 0.85. Current DVD disks employ a 650-nm red laser, bond 0.6-mm-thick disks and specify a 0.6 NA. Systems based on the Blu-ray format could ship as early as the fall of 2003. Technology licensing is expected to start this spring.
While the format itself is not compatible with DVD technologies, systems couldbe made compatible in some way, said Pioneer executive corporate engineering adviser Masao Sugimoto. He did not...