NEC Electronics has developed an LSI that supports 16x recording for all DVD formats, including DVD±R/RW and DVD-RAM. The company announced that it plans to produce two million items per month, starting from August. The company's previous product did not support 16x recording and playback for DVD-RAM discs. NEC Corp. and Pioneer Corp. are said to have decided to use the chipsets in their DVD recorders.

The LSI (Large Scale Intergration) system is composed by the "μPD63645" set, responsible for analog processing and tasks such optical head position control, servos and semiconductor laser output, and the "μPC3345", is capable of digital signal processing tasks such as data encoding/decoding, error correction, data verification etc.

The LSI supports 16x recording for DVD-RAM and DVD±R/RW media. Although the 16x recording speed for DVD-RAM has not yet being included in the DVD Forum's standards, it is expected to be certified very soon.



What is also interesting is the fact that the "μPD63645" used for data processing, supports the VCPS copyright protection. VCPS is a technology for encrypting video recordings on DVD+R and DVD+RW discs. Designed to protect recordings of digital broadcast according to the Broadcast Flag rules adopted by the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC), VCPS also enables direct digital recording of 'copy-once' content from satellite and cable sources. In addition, the LSI supports the CPRM content protection used for content on DVD-RAM media.

NEC also confirmed that it is developing another version of the μPC3346, that will be used for analogue processing in portable devices. The specific low-power LSI (3.3V) will offer up to 5x recording for DVD-RAM.

Both sets of LSIs will be available in August for 5,000 Yen ($46).