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Matsushita Develops Blu-Ray Disk Drives

Posted on: Wednesday, 5 October 2005, 18:00 CDT

Osaka, Oct. 5 (Jiji Press)--Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. said Wednesday it has developed the world's first Blu-ray disk drives for personal computers capable of both recording and playing.

Matsushita said it will start mass-manufacturing the drive for desktop PCs in January 2006. The Blu-ray disc is a next-generation DVD format proposed by a group of firms including Matsushita and Sony Corp. .

With the launch of the new product, competition is expected to heat up between the Blu-ray group and a rival camp pushing another format, called High-Definition DVD.

In the HD DVD camp, Toshiba Samsung Storage Technology Corp. has recently unveiled an HD DVD drive for notebook PCs. The firm is a joint venture between Toshiba Corp. and South Korean electronics giant Samsung Electronics Co.

Matsushita plans to begin sample shipments of the new drive for desktop PCs later this month, with mass production seen starting soon after the start of 2006. Mass production of the drive for notebook PCs is expected to begin in March 2006.

Matsushita officials said the firm has yet to decide when it will release its own PCs loaded with the new drives.END

Source: Jiji Press English News Service

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