Oak Technology today introduced the industry's first integrated three-chip set for recordable DVD drives. Leveraging Oak's production proven optical technologies, the chip set includes the OTI-9832 combo analog front end (AFE) device, the OTI-9838 CD-RW/DVD-ROM combo controller capable of 24X CD-RW writing speeds, and the OTI-9831 DVD write processor, capable of state-of-the-art 4X write speeds.

The new chip set offers PC and consumer OEMs Oak's advanced optical recording features, including Constant Angular Velocity (CAV) write processing, which offers faster overall write speeds by completing the entire write process without pausing the data transfer for zone changes, and ExacLink(TM) buffer underrun protection which enables OEM customers to provide stable, high-performance drives with improved data recording capability. Additionally, the chip set supports the Mt. Rainier standard for "drag-and-drop" file exchanges using rewritable CD media.

IDC forecasts 83 million units of CD/DVD recordable drives to ship in 2002, an increase of 48 percent over the previous year, citing video as the key application driving the growth. The firm also believes PC OEMs will embrace DVD recording as a differentiator in their high-end home PC offerings.

"Oak Technology is addressing the need to lower the cost of DVD recordable drives by reducing the component count," said Wolfgang Schlichting, research manager, Removable Storage at IDC. "Oak's solution, incorporating only three chips, enables lower OEM cost points and achieves higher integration for PC and consumer OEMs. It is clear that DVD recording is on its way to becoming a mass market as prices decline."

This solution supports all popular media types by reading DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD+RW, and DVD-RW discs, eliminating consumer concerns about media compatibility. By combining a high level of integration and performance, the chip set offers consumer and PC drive OEMs lower cost and faster recording times. The CD-R/RW and recordable DVD solution employs advanced features such as an automated dynamic write strategy to reduce the size and complexity of required firmware, OPC/ROPC processor blocks to achieve high accuracy writing, and power management to reduce power consumption and increase efficiency for slim drive applications.

"Our chip set represents the 'state-of-the-technology' for premium optical performance, features, integration, and cost efficiency," said Clark Foy, vice president of marketing for Oak Technology's Optical Storage Group. "Our solution provides Oak's customers with competitively differentiated DVD recordable performance to enable the mass consumer market."

OTI-9831

The OTI-9831 is the world's first commercially available DVD write processor solution. The OTI-9831 provides a high level of integration and performance which includes a built-in dynamic write strategy, table driven programmable static write strategy, concurrent slow/fast ROPC loop, high resolution WRF sampling, various LD device interface support, write processor, OPC/ROPC processor, LPP/ADIP/HDR decoder, wobble processor, tilt servo, motor control, DVD encoder, and CAV and CLV write motor speed control. The processor is capable of 4X DVD-R/+R/-RW/+RW (4.7GB) write speed, which will enable DVD drives to record a full 4.7 Gigabyte DVD disc in less than 30 minutes.

OTI-9832

The OTI-9832 is a CD-R/RW + DVD combo analog front end device capable of 32X CD-R write, 48X CD-ROM read, and 16X DVD read speeds and offers support for CAV, Z-CLV, and CLV modes. It is highly compatible with all popular media types by supporting DVD-ROM/-R/+R/-RW/+RW discs. The device offers high performance by integrating matrix functions with sample/hold, servo algebra, RF AGC and equalizer, ATIP wobble detection, peak/bottom hold for RF/beta, mirror detection, APC, defect detection, data slicer, data synchronizer, and microcontroller interface.

OTI-9838

The OTI-9838 is a CD-RW/DVD-ROM combo controller capable of 24X CD-RW, 48X CD-ROM, and 16X DVD read speeds, and supports all popular DVD media types. The device uses advanced digital processing techniques to minimize the amount of required analog circuitry, providing increased flexibility and greater immunity to system noise. Its advanced architecture affords reduced error rates, greater seek accuracy, and improved seek access time, particularly for CD-R/RW media.

Availability

Oak's chip set is now sampling, and is priced at $25 each in production quantities of 10,000.