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IT heavyweights join Toshiba as HD DVD ramps

Leading IT companies Intel and Microsoft are now backing the Toshiba-led HD DVD Promotion Group, while a Toshiba-Samsung joint-venture company releases the first slim HD DVD read drive for notebook PCs.

Intel and Microsoft have joined the high-definition (HD) DVD Promotion Group, putting huge industrial support behind the switch to data storage technology based on GaN blue-violet laser diodes.

The HD DVD group's founding companies, which include the laser manufacturers Toshiba, NEC and Sanyo, said that the heavyweight backing from two of the world's key IT firms would help HD DVD make early market penetration.

HD DVD's supporters are rivaling the Blu-ray Disc venture led by Sony and Matsushita as the GaN-based technology begins to become a commercial reality.

Talks between the two camps to settle on a combined format broke down recently.

"The capacity for volume production of HD DVD discs is already in place," said Shiroharu Kawasaki, the CEO of Memory Tech, a key partner in the HD DVD camp. It will manufacture the high-density discs that are read using a blue-violet laser.

Hisashi Yamada, who represents Toshiba at the DVD Forum, added: "Hollywood studios are now working on preparation of DVD content, and I look forward to the near future, when people everywhere will be able to enjoy high-definition images on TV and their PC."

The HD DVD disc format uses an identical structure to that of current DVD technology, something that its backers see as a key advantage compared with Blu-ray.

Toshiba recently developed a dual-layer recordable HD DVD disc that can hold up to 30 GB of data.

And that's not all. Toshiba's joint venture Toshiba Samsung Storage Technology (TSST) has just released the first slimline HD DVD drive designed for use in notebook PCs.

The drive can read high-density data using a blue-violet laser diode, while it also incorporates conventional laser technology to read and write both DVDs and CDs.

TSST says that because the HD DVD disc employs the same structure as conventional discs, a single lens can be used in the optical pick-up head.

The company will be showing off the new drive at the CEATEC JAPAN 2005 technology show in Makuhari, Japan, on 4-8 October.

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