Matsushita, best know for its Panasonic consumer brand, claims it has developed the first chipset that enables future optical drives to playback and record Blu-ray media (BD) as well as common DVD and CD formats.
The company said that DVD-RAM, DVD-/+R, DVD-RW/+RW and DVD-ROM are supported. The only absent format is HD DVD, which, however, comes as little surprise as Matushita is a firm supporter of the Blu-ray technology and opponent of HD DVD.
Panasonic said that it will start sample shipments of the chipset in December 2005 and begin mass production in January 2006.
More about chipsets
