30GB o­n a 5 inch disc. How many formats are there going to be? Last week, there was HD DVD. There's also Blu Ray from Sony, but that's a different story. I guess competition can't hurt.

Mitsubishi Chemical Media Corporation, otherwise known as Verbatim, has developed a 30GB 5 inch rewriteable optical disc using the UDO (Ultra Density Optical) format. They plan to being shipment in Fall of 2004.

UDO, developed by Plasmon, is a rewriteable optical storage medium that uses a blue laser. Mitsubishi Chemical Media has obtained a license from Plasmon, and will begin the manufacture and sale of UDO media. The media is 5 inches in size, and uses a cartridge type-case, just like current MO optical discs. The capacity, when using both sides, is 30GB.

Media is available in both write-once and rewriteable types. Since the written data cannot be changed, write-once media is best suited for saving information by enterprises. The rewriteable media can be rewritten more than 10,000 times. The price is "Open Price," but actual retail price should be in the 10,000-20,000 yen range.

Both Plasmon and HP America plan o­n beginning shipments of drives that support the media.

In the year 2000, Sony announced a 5 inch optical storage medium by the same name, but this UDO disc is of a different standard.

Original Article:
http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2003/1224/mitsubishi.htm

Mitsubishi Chemical Media Homepage:
http://www.mcmedia.co.jp/

News Release:
http://www.mcmedia.co.jp/japanese/news/press/0028.html

Plasmon Homepage:
http://www.plasmon.com/