Philips Semiconductors Delivers World's First Single-chip 12-Speed DVD-ROM Drive Solution - SAA7811 - Product Announcement

Edge: Work-Group Computing Report, Nov 8, 1999

Philips Semiconductors Monday announced the world's first single-chip solution for 12-speed (12x) DVD-ROM drives. In addition to high-speed DVD performance, the highly-integrated SAA7811 supports 56x CD-ROM access, making it ideal for use in high-end CD/DVD combination drives.

"The ability to reliably read DVD disks at 12 times normal speed depends on the quality of the drive's servo control loops," said Yasuo Suzuki, Philips Semiconductors' product marketing manager for DVD products. "Philips Semiconductors' wealth of experience in the design of the servo mechanisms and their control electronics has enabled us to maintain the lead in high-performance DVD systems."

Packaged in a single 208-lead quad flat pack, the SAA7811 combines a channel decoder, block decoder, servo control and microcontroller functions. Even in lower speed drives, this level of functionality previously required the use of several ICs. Built-in multimedia functions include playback of audio CDs at speeds greater than 1x using a DRAM buffer, IEC 60958 digital audio interfacing, and audio playback via an on-chip DAC with a 4x over-sampling filter and digitally controlled volume/muting.

Additionally, the host interface supports ATA/ATA-2 PIO and ATA/ATAPI-4 Ultra-DMA data transfer modes, which can also be configured as a generic DMA interface for special applications. The spindle motor control for Constant Angular Velocity (CAV), Constant Linear Velocity (CLV) and pseudo-CLV modes enables the SAA7811 to read a wide range of disk formats, including CD-ROM, CD-DA, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-ROM and DVD-Video.

Pricing and Availability

The SAA7811 one chip DVD-ROM is priced at $10.00 in quantities 100,000. Samples are available now and production will be in Q4 1999.

Philips Semiconductors, a subsidiary of Philips Electronics North America Corporation and an affiliate of Royal Philips Electronics, headquartered in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, is the eighth largest semiconductor supplier based on Dataquest's 1998 report.(a) Philips Semiconductors' innovations in digital audio, video, and mobile technology position the company as a leader in the consumer, multimedia and wireless communications markets. Sales offices are located in all major markets around the world and are supported by systems labs. Additional information on Philips Semiconductors can be found on the home page at www.semiconductors.philips.com or by calling 1-800-447-1500 ext. 1809.

(a) Based on Vendor Revenue from Shipments of Total Semiconductors Worldwide according to Dataquest's 1998 Worldwide Semiconductor Market Share report published in May 1999.