The DaTARIUS Group has been chosen by New Medium Enterprises (NME) to develop a range of quality control Analyzers for the HD VMD (High Definition Versatile Multilayer Disc) format. Under this agreement, DaTARIUS becomes the off-line test equipment provider for HD VMD, and NME and DaTARIUS will jointly own the Intellectual Property Rights that emerge from efforts in building this test equipment for the industry. DaTARIUS is developing an HD VMD driveCube for the DaTABANK, and the wide installed global base of this test system is expected to ease the integration of HD VMD production into existing optical media manufacturing facilities.

VMD technology can provide up to eight information layers on each side of a disc and can be utilized for both blue laser and red laser formats; the technology is also applicable for single and double-sided discs and a variety of formats, including Blu-ray and HD DVD. VMD is currently being adopted by content providers and distributors worldwide, including EMEA (France, Germany, Italy, Russia, UK, Central Europe and the Middle East), the Americas (USA and Brazil) and Asia (China, India and Japan).