Toshiba Announces HD-DVD RW Drive for Notebooks

Germany, 4 June 2007 – Toshiba Storage Device Division Europe today
announced the world’s first slim re-writable HD DVD drive for notebook
PCs. With the new SD-L912A drive, Toshiba is offering consumer and
business notebook PC users access to affordable next-generation HD DVD
quality entertainment that delivers the full visual brilliance of
high-definition content with the flexibility of re-writable HD DVD
media.

For business users, the new re-writable drive can be utilised to back up
large volumes of data-rich high -definition content from a PC hard
drive. Single and double layer HD DVD discs are already available and
offer capacities of 15GB and 30GB respectively. Triple layer HD DVD ROM
discs that will offer capacities up to 51GB are currently in development
and will be available in late 2007.

For consumers, the SD-912A is the perfect solution for capturing and
recording the increasingly available high-definition content from
leading broadcasters across the world. According to leading broadcast
analyst Screen Digest, by 2010 there will be approximately 100 HD
channels available in Europe and more than 11 million households
accessing HD quality content(1). In addition, because HD DVD and current
DVD discs share the same physical structure, the drive will support read
and write functionality to HD DVD-R discs and high-performance,
high-speed read and write to all flavors of standard DVD and CD discs.

“Our new drive delivers the perfect combination of high capacity
storage, outstanding audio and visual playback and the complete
flexibility of the re-writable format,” explained Martin Larsson,
General Manager, Toshiba Europe Storage Device Division. “Notebook users
will soon be able to enjoy a truly rich and compelling high-definition
video playback experience.”

Toshiba will feature the new drive at the Toshiba Digital Media Network
Taiwan Corporation booth (booth: B1234) at Computex 2007, which will be
held in Taipei, Taiwan from 5-9 June.

Pricing and availability
Customer sampling of the SD-L912A is expected to take place. Notebook
PCs incorporating the new drive are expected.

Main specifications

Model name SD-L912A

Read/Write Speed
Write
• HD DVD-R SL*: 2x; HD DVD-R DL*: 1x
• HD DVD-RW SL*: 1x; HD DVD-RW DL*: 1x
• DVD-RAM: Max. 3x; DVD-R SL*: Max. 4x
• DVD-R DL*: Max. 2x; DVD-RW: Max. 4x
• DVD+R SL*: Max. 4x; DVD+R DL*: Max. 2.4x
• DVD+RW: Max. 4x; CD-R: Max. 16x
• CD-RW: 4x; High Speed CD-RW: Max. 10x
• Ultra Speed CD-RW: 10x
Read
• HD DVD-R SL*: 2.4x; HD DVD-R DL*: 1x
• HD DVD-RW SL* :1x, HD DVD-RW DL*: 1x
• HD DVD-ROM: 2.4x
• DVD: Max. 8x; CD: Max. 24x