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To: Don Dorsey who wrote (34197)	7/8/1998 4:10:00 PM
From: John Rieman	Respond to of 50808

Hitachi's DVD-RAM.................................... Hitachi GF-1050 DVD-RAM Drive Robert A. Starrett EMedia Professional, August 1998 Copyright c Online Inc. Product in Brief Product: Hitachi GF-1050 DVD-RAM Drive Synopsis: Immensely larger than ZIP, four times as large as its PD cousin, DVD-RAM is also vastly cheaper than MO. Furthermore, DVD-RAM's ability to read all of the compact disc formats, could quickly make it the standard medium and drive for high-density data storage and exchange-a position CD-R only acceded to in the 650MB domain after a long and hard struggle. While Hitachi's first DVD-RAM offering is hardly a speed demon, the fact that all DVD-RAM drives will be read- and write-compatible with discs produced on other manufacturers' drives gives the format a leg up on the competition for affordable, interchangeable, and inexpensive mass storage. Price: Internal SCSI GF-1050, $599; Internal ATAPI GF-1000, $599; External SCSI GF-1055, $775 For more information, contact: Hitachi America, Ltd. 2000 Sierra Point Parkway Brisbane, CA 94005-1835 650/589-8300 Fax 650/244-7647 hitachi.com Everything seems right about the Hitachi GF-1050 DVD-RAM drive except the DVD before the RAM. And this slightly uncomfortable feeling is not limited to the Hitachi, but applies to DVD-RAM drives from other manufacturers as well. The incongruity represents no failing on the part of the Hitachi drive itself, nor of the technology. The problem lies with the possibility of consumer confusion over the DVD label being attached to this computer peripheral. The DVD specification, with its five books, A through E, is so multifaceted that consumers may incorrectly assume that DVD-RAM, defined in book E, at least in its first generation, has the same relationship to DVD-ROM as CD-ROM has with CD-R and CD-RW. CD-Recordable is an ideal prototyping and testing medium for CD-ROM titles. And CD-RW enjoys the same relationship, with the added benefit of direct overwrite capability. But DVD-RAM is not, nor was it meant to be, a prototyping vehicle for DVD-ROM or DVD-Video titles. First, at 2.32GB per side (once formatted), the medium is too small to hold the contents of a DVD-Video movie title, or of a full 4.7GB DVD-ROM title. Second, at least with the Hitachi at this point in time, a DVD-RAM disc cannot be played in a DVD-ROM drive since the disc itself is encased in a plastic cartridge. Hitachi and other DVD-RAM manufacturers do say, however, that this constraint will be removed in the future. But looking at the bigger picture, and looking down the removable storage road, you soon realize that despite its coat-tail connection to DVD, it remains a storage medium with a unique and strong positioning in the high-density arena. DVD-RAM is important. This is the first time that the average computer peripheral customer has an opportunity to afford large rewritable removable storage. DVD-RAM drives will be available from several manufacturers and since the technology is standardized by book E, all DVD-RAM drives and cartridges will be compatible with one another. This compatibility will have the further effect of driving prices down early in the life of the product. MO drives have been around for years, but unlike DVD-RAM, they've never offered logical cartridge compatibility between manufacturers. And DVD-RAM's advantages over currently available removable storage options don't stop there. Immensely larger than ZIP, four times as large as its PD cousin, DVD-RAM is also vastly cheaper than MO. Furthermore, DVD-RAM's ability to read all of the compact disc formats could quickly make it the standard medium and drive for high-density data storage and exchange-a position CD-R only acceded to in the 650MB domain after a long and hard struggle. While Hitachi's first DVD-RAM offering and its first-generation contemporaries are hardly speed demons in data transfer rates and access times, the fact that all DVD-RAM drives will be read- and write-compatible with discs produced on other manufacturers' drives gives the format a leg up on the competition for affordable, interchangeable, and inexpensive mass storage. Hitachi's DVD-RAM roadmap calls for a 4.7GB capacity per side by 1999 when the second generation of drives is scheduled to ship. While still incapable of prototyping titles that use dual-layer DVD, the higher-capacity second-generation drives should work fine for single-layer disc prototyping and testing. More............... onlineinc.com