Panasonic plans on delivering a DVD-RAM drive early next year with double the capacity of their existing DVD-RAM drive.

The new drive can write and read from 4.7 GB single sided media as well as 9.4 GB double sided media. The drive is a cartridge type that uses hinged cartridge cases so regular DVD-ROM disks can be used with the drive.

The DVD-RAM media are reported as readable by regular DVD-ROM drives (once removed from the cartridge case). Rewrites up to 100,000 times per DVD-RAM disc is stated as feasible because of the cartridge design. Complete compatibility with reading regular DVD-ROM, CD, CD-R, DVD-R, Audio CD, CD-RW and video CDs is claimed as the unit has a separate laser designed to read other formats. The design is in compliance with DVD-RAM standards adopted by the DVD Forum.