While we're o­n the topic of HD DVD, it appears NEC Electronics has announced the world's first LSI for recording and reading HD DVDs. You can also record to existing CDs and DVDs, but o­nce HD DVD products start hitting the market (2006 and 2007), I don't think you'll be doing that anymore anyway.

NEC Electronics Corporation announced o­n the 24th that they have, for the first time in the industry, successfully developed an LSI (ASSP) for recording/playback of HD DVD and intended for special/general use customers. It was jointly developed by NEC Electronics and NEC, and it is planned for use in HD DVD drives to be developed.

Developments include:
-High speed AD converter
-Digital Phase Synchronous Loop (PLL) circuitry for realization of stable yet high speed recording/playback
-a "Digital Read Channel" through the use of the Viterbi detection tool optimized for high quality playback based o­n an ETM recording signal
The LSI supports a maximum 2x recording/playback of HD DVD.

Also, this LSI can be combined with the "μPC3335" and "μPD63635" system LSIs for existing DVD recordable drives announced by NEC Electronics in June. The LSI developed this time around will bear the burden of encoding/decoding of recording signals for HD DVD, and the "μPC3335" or "μPD63635" will handle encoding/decoding of recording signals for CD and DVD, as well as handle the digital servo function for controlling the pickup location, and finally handle the ATAPI host interface function for connection to a PC.

Furthermore, this LSI contains an exclusive data transfer function, so that HD DVD data can be quickly transferred to buffer RAM through the medium of the μPD63635's buffer RAM interface block. Because of this function, an HD DVD system supporting existing CD/DVD media recording/playback can be easily constructed.

Regarding the background o­n NEC Electronics' development of this LSI, they explain, "We developed this considering that the next-generation DVD system market will begin from 2007 to 2008. We think that this will hasten the commercialization of practical products for next-generation DVD systems, and contribute to the establishment of the market."



Inspired by:
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/av/docs/20040924/necel.htm

News Release:
http://www.necel.com/ja/news/archive/0409/2402.html