* Matsushita to Introduce Low-Priced DVD-RAM Drives
March 11, 1999 (TOKYO) -- Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. announced three models of DVD-RAM drives and a DVD-RAM disk with a storage capacity of 2.6GB.
The drives offer almost the same specifications as its existing models LF-D100JD and LF-D100JA, each of which was priced at 100,000 yen (121.37 yen=US$1). The new drives feature prices reduced to the levels of 70,000 yen and compatibility with Windows NT. The company plans to raise its monthly output from current 20,000 drives to 50,000 drives. Disks will be sold by the unit or in a pack of three units.
Drives announced are the external LF-D102JD for Windows machines, priced at 79,800 yen; the internal LF-D103JD for Windows machines, priced at 72,800 yen; and the external LF-D120JA for Macintosh machines, priced at 79,800 yen.
Like their predecessors, the drives can write PD and read DVD-ROM, DVD-VIDEO, CD-ROM, CD-R and CD-RW disks. The interface is SCSI-2 (Fast SCSI, SCAM level 1).
The two models for Windows machines will incorporate a universal disk format (UDF) file system driver that conforms to Windows NT 4.0 for the first time in the industry, company officials said.
The model for Macintosh machines will incorporate a UDF driver for the Macintosh operating system (version 7.6.1 or later) as its standard.
The sizes of the external models shrank by 30 percent in cubic volume and 40 percent in weight as compared to the existing models. Their bodies were redesigned. Shipments will be April 3 for the LF-D102JD, May 10 for the LF-D103JD and June 10 for the LF-D102JA.
The DVD-RAM disks will be priced at 2,300 yen per unit for sales and 6,400 yen for a pack of three disks. Shipments are slated to start on April 3. Monthly output of the DVD-RAM disks will total 150,000 units, company officials said.
(BizTech News Dept.)
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