Sony ships 1st 23 GB PDD media (图)

Sony ships first 23 GByte blue laser PDD media By Wolfgang Gruener, Senior Editor April 26, 2004 - 11:59 EST Park Ridge (NJ) - Sony announced that it has shipped its first Professional Disc for DATA (PDD) media. Using blue-violet lasers, the new format offers a capacity of 23.3 GByte capacity per single-sided disc. Sony's PDD media take advantage of shorter wavelength provided by a blue-violet laser and a high-performance lens to write up to four times more data on a disc than what is possible with red laser-based CD, DVD and magneto optical (MO) technologies. According to the company, the technology focuses on business applications to off a high-end back-up and storage solution especially for medical imaging, broadcast, audio/video editing, graphic design and enterprise content management. While PDD media use a blue laser similar to Blu-ray technology, the two are disparate formats targeted at different markets. In contrast to PDD, Blu-ray is a consumer recording technology that is available only in Japan for now. PDD and Blu-ray discs are not interchangeable. PDD media are characterized by a narrower track pitch than CD, DVD and MO technologies. The track pitch of an optical disc can compared to line spacing on a sheet of paper - where narrower spacing results in more information capacity. According to Sony, PDD media are designed for durability in anti-static polycarbonate resin cartridges that cover the discs, protecting them from damage and data loss or errors during the write/read process. The company estimates that PDD media have a lifespan of over 50 years and can be rewritten more than 10,000 times. Second-generation PDD technology is expected in 2005, featuring a 50GByte storage capacity on a single-sided, double layer disc with a transfer rate of 18 MByte/s. Scheduled for release in 2007, third-generation PDD drives and media are projected to reach a 100GB storage capacity using double-sided media and a transfer rate of 36 MByte/s. PDD media are available for about $45 for both the write-once version and the rewritable version. http://www.tomshardware.com/hardnews/20040426_115948.html