Toshiba Announces Mobile HD DVD Writer

Toshiba has announced a 12.7 millimeter-thick HD DVD writer designed for mobile PCs.

At this week’s CEATEC trade show in Japan, Toshiba is demonstrating what it’s calling the first HD DVD writer designed for mobile PCs, the fetchingly-named SD-L902A.

The unit supports reading and writing HD DVD disks as well as standard DVD and CD media, boasts an 8 MB onboard buffer and ATAPI interface, and is a scant 12.7 millimeters in height, making it ideal for use in notebooks, tablet PCs, and other portable gear. However, the unit is no speed demon, offering just 1× read and write speeds writing single and double-layer HD DVD media, 3× writing DVD-RAM, 4× writing single-layer DVD-R, and 2× or 2.4× writing double-layer DVD media. (Performance picks up to 16× on CD-R media, and CD read speeds reach 24×.)

“As high-definition digital media moves into the mainstream, consumers are adopting products that accommodate this improved image experience—from large-screen televisions to digital video camcorders and mobile PCs,” said Maciek Brzeski, vice president marketing, Toshiba Storage Device Division, in a release (PDF). “Toshiba’s new HD DVD writer allows mobile PC manufacturers to integrate high-definition digital video editing capabilities into their products, giving consumers a complete high-definition experience for their original content.”

Toshiba expects to start shipping sample units to manufacturers by the end of 2006; so don’t expect these to hit market until the first or second quarter of 2007.