DVD-RAM technology: first generation and future prospects

At the end of last year, DVD-video players and DVD-ROM drives were put on the market as new optical memories for the multimedia era. Following these read-only DVDs, DVD-RAM is expected to be widely used for storing large amounts of information which will be sent to PCs and TVs through the Internet, CATV channels, satellites, etc. In this paper, we discuss first-generation and future DVD-RAM technologies, in particular, high-density recording technologies. Our concept for the future prospects for DVD-RAM technologies is shown. Basically, future trends in DVD-RAMs are expected to progress in line with those of read-only DVDs, namely DVD-Video, DVD-ROM, and High-Definition DVD (HD-DVD). In order to realize many kinds of multimedia applications using DVDs, it is most important to maintain compatibility with not only current DVDs but also future DVDs.