Mitsubishi Electric Corp. announced a new red semiconductor laser diode (ML1XX20), supporting 140mW light output that enables writing up to 8X for all DVD recordable/re-writing formats. The first samples are expected from December 2002, while the massive production expected to start from June of 2003. The new laser diode will support 8X writing at all DVD media (DVD-RAM/-R/-RW/+R/+RW). At 8X, one DVD (4.7GB) can be written in in about 7 minutes! Mitsubishi promises even higher speeds next year.