Philips new optical drive can burn and play CDs and DVDs in three formats, including the new Blu-ray standard.
The drive, to be presented at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week and to be available in the second half of 2005, comes as electronics giants jockey for support of their new DVD systems.
The Dutch company, together with a group of other powerful electronics makers including Sony Corp, Hewlett-Packard and Dell , is proposing the Blu-ray format which can store up to 50 Gigabytes of data on a disc.
The new Philips drive has three lasers, including Blu-ray’s blue laser which has a shorter wavelength than current red lasers, allowing for a thinner light beam that can read and write smaller bits of information on a disc.
Source: Reuters
