Oak Technology today announced that its OTI-9897 "combo" CD-RW/DVD-ROM controller is featured in the first combo drives produced by Tokyo-based Hitachi-LG Data Storage, a joint venture of Hitachi, Ltd. and LG Electronics that began operation early this year. The first combo CD-RW/DVD solutions from HLDS include half-height and slim drives targeted for both desktop and mobile systems. Both models have been selected by major PC OEMs for their next-generation systems. The GCC-4120B is a half-height combo drive for desktop systems that features 12X CD-R and 8X CD-RW write speeds as well as 32X CD-ROM and 8X DVD read speeds. The slim GCC-4080N for mobile computers features 8X CD-R and 8X CD-RW write speeds as well as 24X CD-ROM and 8X DVD read speeds.

Oak's OTI-9897 combo controller is capable of 16X CD-R and 16X CD-RW write speeds as well as 40X CD-ROM and 8X DVD read speeds. It supports all DVD media types by reading DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD+RW discs. The single-chip controller integrates an Ultra DMA IDE/Atapi controller, CD block decoder/encoder, CD-DSP, DVD-DSP, CD/DVD servo, CD wobble servo, CD write strategy, and CSS content protection authentication.

The combo controller uses advanced digital signal processing techniques to minimize the amount of required analog circuitry. This approach provides increased flexibility and greater immunity to system noise. An advanced architecture affords a high level of accuracy and improved seek access time, particularly for CD-RW media. Power management is provided to reduce power consumption and increase power efficiency.