Pioneer to produce 50GB Blu-ray disk technique

A REPORT IN THE Japanese press said that Pioneer will be able to double Blu-ray optical drives to support 50GB optical disks.

Nikkei.net reports that Pioneer has made the breakthrough by using an electron rather than a laser beam to etch grooves on disks.

The capacity of Blu-ray disks using conventional ultraviolet beams only supports 27GB, the wire said, but Pioneer will supply the technology under licence to other companies to boost that capacity to a massive 50GB.

Meanwhile, Philips is expected to release a dual level DVD-9 writer for around $150 in a few weeks time, according to the New Scientist.

That will allow data to be written to 8.4GB disks, although the media used for the writer will cost quite a bit more than current conventional media. µ