More 12x news, and apparently 16x is not far off.
No mention of dual layer though, which IMO is in greater demand than faster writing speeds.

Sanyo Electric Corporation announced the "LC897491" LSI o­n the 15th, that supports the world's fastest 12x DVD+R writing. Shipment of samples begins in the middle of March, and the price for a sample is 2,000 yen.

This is a 12x DVD+R LSI that has a i80251 standard 8bit CPU core. The LQFP-256 package is manufactured under a 0.25μm process rule.

The LC897491's DSP function writes DVD+R at 12x, DVD-R at 8x, DVD±RW at 8x, CD-R at 52x, and CD-RW at 32x. Read speeds are 16x for DVD-ROM, 2x for DVD-RAM, and 52x for CD-ROM.

Inside the product is an 8Mbit flash memory and Micon. Up until now, Pick, RF, DSP, Micon, Flash, and SDRAM chips were required, but the DSP and Flash, and the Micon have been integrated to three chips, bringing the total number of required chips down to four.

Writing functions include buffer-underrun protection through "BURN-Proof," and high density recording "HD-BURN" which allows for up to twice the data to be written o­n CD-R media. The supported interface is to ATA/66.

At the announcement event, Tomofumi Watanabe (Chief of Information Media Development Department) spoke about the growth of the DVD recording drive market. He said that the demand for DVD writing drives in PCs, as well as demanded write speed is expected to increase, and this product is in response to these demands.

He also presented that a 16x DVD writing LSI is currently in development. He expressed their outlook as "aiming for having mass production before the end of the year."

During the question and answer session, it was commented that the LC897491 is currently used in Plextor's "PX-712A/JP" DVD multidrive. Currently, in addition to Plextor, it is expected to be used by three overseas companies.

While the Serial ATA supporting Plextor "PX-712SA/JP" drive was announced at the same time, Hiroyuki Tsuda (Information Media Development Department Technology Head) explained that "the DSP does not natively support Serial ATA, so it is supported with a bridge chip."

Also, it was explained that o­nce a 16x DSP has been developed for ATAPI, they will work o­n having Serial ATA native o­n the DSP side.

Inspired by:
http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2004/0315/sanyo.htm

Press Release:
http://www.sanyo.co.jp/koho/hypertext4/0403news-j/0315-1.html