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HP, DELL JOIN BLU-RAY DISC FOUNDERS

HP and Dell have joined the Blu-ray Disc Founders, adding support from the world's two largest PC manufacturers to the already broad support from the consumer electronics industry for the Blu-ray Disc format being developed to provide high-capacity optical-disc storage to support high-definition TV and other emerging technologies.

Dell and HP announced their support for the Blu-ray Disc format at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last month and have now formally joined the organization responsible for developing and promoting the revolutionary new format for high-capacity optical discs.

"It's extremely important that any optical-disc format be suitable for use in both PCs and consumer electronics devices and have strong support from the movie industry and other content providers," said Maureen Weber, general manager of the Optical Storage Solutions at HP. "We joined the Blu-ray Disc Founders because Blu-ray is the format that best enables the PC, consumer-electronics and entertainment industries to provide the kind of applications and content consumers will expect as high-definition TV and other emerging high-capacity applications become more widely available."

"We think Blu-ray Disc has the potential to bring a whole new level of entertainment and functionality to our customers," said Richard Masselink, senior manager of storage peripherals at Dell. "Blu-ray Disc's revolutionary architecture allows it to take full advantage of high-definition TV, broadband Internet connectivity and other emerging technologies. Now that we're part of the BDF, Dell looks forward to working with other members to bring the benefits of Blu-ray Disc technology to consumers."

Both HP and Dell have been focusing on blue-laser technology as an important element in establishing the next generation high-density and high-grade optical disc recording technology. The companies have identified the BDF's Blu-ray Disc format as the most promising technology in this area and have contributed to the format's development through technical proposals to the BDF.

The BDF began licensing the Blu-ray Disc Rewritable format in February 2003 and is currently developing BD-ROM "read-only" and BD-R "Recordable" formats.

With the addition of HP and Dell, a total of twelve BDF members will devote themselves to further technological development at the highest level in the industry, while promoting the Blu-ray Disc formats to benefit related industries worldwide.

The Blu-ray Disc Founders formed officially in May 2002 to pursue broad acceptance of the Blu-ray Disc formats. Member companies so far include Dell, Inc, HP, Hitachi Ltd, LG Electronics Inc, Matsushita Electric Industrial CoLtd(Panasonic), Mitsubishi Electric Corp, Pioneer Corp, Royal Philips Electronics, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, Sharp Corp; Sony Corp; and Thomson. The Web site for the Blu-ray Disc Founders is www.blu-ray disc-official.org/about/index.html.