Hitachi-LG Data Storage has developed the half-height Blu-ray disc drive GBW-H10N for built-in use in PCs that achieves 4x high-speed recording for the first time in the industry. Production is slated to begin in late July 2006.

This product or so-called super-multi Blu-ray disc drive can record and play back Blu-ray format discs BD-R and BD-RE, play back BD-ROM, record and play back all-format DVDs (DVD-RAM/R/RW, +R/RW), as well as CD-R and CD-RW, and play back DVD-ROM and CD-ROM.

The GBW-H10N can record and play back 25GB large-capacity Blu-ray discs BD-R and BD-RE suitable for storing high-quality images. For BD-R in particular, this product achieves quadrupled data transfer speed as fast as 144 Mbps for the first time in the industry. Moreover, the BD-RE 2x recording speed is realized as the currently highest speed in the industry.



The drive also supports CAV playback up to 4.8x for Blu-ray Discs. The adaptive equalization and adaptive Viterbi decoding of high-speed playback signals achieves low-error playback. As a result, BD-ROM and BD-R (closed disc) can be played back using 4.8x CAV, which iseven faster than recording.

Also for DVD/CD other than Blu-ray discs, the GBW-H10N provides recording and playback functions similar to those of the HLDS conventional super-multi disc drive.

By combining the technologies of affiliates, HLDS commercialized the product through comprehensive development starting from key components to the final end product. To support BD/DVD/CD in particular, HLDS newly developed a highly functional optical head and a Digital Signal Processor (DSP) capable of high-level signal processing in support of various recording formats. The recording and playback of various discs were realized by developing a new single-lens 3LD pickup capable of recording and playing BD, DVD, and CD.

In addition to these key components, the LD driver with write strategy, buffer underrun error prevention, and many other technologies accumulated in conventional super-multi drive development were adopted to ensure very stable recording and playback.

Main Specifications

- Interface: ATAPI (Enhanced IDE Interface)
- Buffer Memory Size: 4Mbytes

- Recording Speeds

BD-R SL: 4x
BD-RE SL: 2x
DVD-R SL: Max. 12x PCAV
DVD-R DL: 4x
DVD-RW: 6x
DVD-RAM: 3-5x (PCAV)
DVD+R SL: Max. 12x PCAV
DVD+R DL: 4x
DVD+RW: 8x (ZCLV)
CD-R: 8x
CD-RW: 10x

- Reading Speeds

BD-R SL: Max. 4.8x
BD-RE SL: 2x
BD-ROM SL: Max. 4.8x
BD-ROM DL: Max. 4x
DVD-ROM SL: Max. 16x
DVD-ROM DL: Max. 8x
DVD-R SL: Max. 10x
DVD-R DL: Max. 8x
DVD-RW: Max. 10x
DVD-RAM: 3-5x (PCAV)
DVD+R SL: Max. 10x
DVD+R DL: Max. 8x
DVD+RW: Max. 10x
CD-ROM/R: Max. 40x
CD-RW: Max. 40x

- Reading Disc Type

BD-ROM (SL 25GB), (DL 50GB)
BD-R (SL 25GB) (Ver.1.1)
BD-RE (SL 25GB) (Ver.2.1)
DVD-ROM, DVD-R(Ver. 2.1 for General), DVD-R, DVD-R DL (Dual Layer), DVD-RW, DVD-RAM(Ver.2.2), DVD+R/RW DVD+R, DVD+R DL(Double Layer), DVD+RW
CD-ROM, CD-ROM XA, CD-I, Video CD,CD-Extra,CD-TEXT, Photo CD, CD-DA, Super Audio CD, CD-R, CD-RW

- Recording Disc Type

BD-R (SL 25GB) (Ver.1.1), BD-RE(SL 25GB) (Ver.2.1)

DVD-R SL 1.46GB/4.7GB (Ver. 2.1 for General) DVD-R DL 8.5GB (Ver. 3.0), DVD-RW 1.46GB/4.7GB (Ver. 1.2/ Rev 1.0, 2.0, 3.0), DVD-RAM 1.46GB/side, 4.7GB/side (Ver.2.2), DVD+R/RW DVD+R SL 4.7GB (Ver. 1.3), DVD+R DL 8.5GB (Ver. 1.1), DVD+RW 4.7GB (Vol. 1/Ver.1.3,Vol. 2/Ver.1.0)

CD-R discs conforming to "Orange Book Part 2"
CD-RW discs conforming to "Orange Book Part 3"

- Recording mode

BD-R: Sequential Recording Mode with Pseudo-Overwrite, Sequential Recording Mode without Pseudo-Overwrite
BD-RE: Random Recording

DVD-R: Disc-At-Once, IncrementalRecording
DVD-R DL: Disc at Once, Incremental Recording,Layer Jump Recording
DVD-RW : Disc-At-Once, IncrementalRecording,Restricted Overwrite
DVD-RAM : Random Recording
DVD+R : Sequential Recording
DVD+R DL: Sequential Recording
DVD+RW : Random Recording
CD-R/RW : Disc-At-Once, Track-At-Once,Session-At-Once, Packet Write