Part 2:
All of these companies want to be the first to bring out a device
that will work in the higher-definition market of the future. Being
first, they believe, will establish their product as a standard --
hence the impatience and desire to move straight to higher
densities of data storage, even in the first generation of
DVD-RAM.
The technology to do so isn't quite here yet, but several companies
see a multibillion-dollar opportunity if they can get there quickly
enough. The key to higher densities in DVD-RAM recording is a
laser with a shorter wavelength. Right now, the proposed
DVD-RAM formats all rely on red lasers with 630- to
650-nanometer wavelengths. To achieve shorter wavelengths
would require a blue laser, which so far has proved very tricky to
produce. Nevertheless, Fujitsu has announced an experimental
424-nanometer blue laser that it hopes can be mass-produced,
and other vendors are expected to announce similar experimental
results soon. Should Fujitsu or another vendor succeed at
mass-producing such lasers, DVD-RAM devices could store
about 13 GB, just short of the HDTV goal.
But all of these machinations could easily backfire, too. In
jockeying to be first, the vendors might create enough confusion
among consumers to delay DVD's acceptance. Worse, by
focusing on HDTV's needs, they could stall acceptance of DVD for
computer applications. For the moment, it's safe to say that a
DVD-ROM reader is probably a good investment, since it doesn't
cost much more than a CD-ROM and compatibility with
DVD-ROM is an important component of each of the competing
rewritable technologies. On the other hand, the writable formats,
including DVD-R, look far too much like orphans in the making.
Steer clear of them for now. |
