SoC supports blue, red laser technology

Atmel Corp. announced its AT78C4050 "All-Format DVD" SoC, an integrated optical system based on 0.13μm technology. The AT78C4050 is capable of supporting both blue and red laser technologies including all DVD-ROM, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, CD-ROM, CD-R/RW and the next-generation HD-DVD and Blue-ray disc formats.

This SoC is designed for the consumer electronics and PC market, and is said to be the first DVD front end device that integrates a Partial Response, Maximum Likelihood (PRML) data channel, DVD ECC, CD CIRC C3, buffer management, DVD CD 1.7PP, EFM+, EFM Endec and ATAPI interface logic on a single chip. According to Atmel, the product integrates all necessary components for a DVD and CD re-writable drive as well as a DVD recorder.

The product is backward compatible with every format that uses a red laser and can achieve DVD read and write speeds of up to 16x and CD-ROM disc read and write speeds of up to 54x. The AT78C4050 for blue laser DVDs can implement speeds of up to 8x.

Atmel's SoC takes advantage of a PRML read channel, which uses mixed-signal processing and DSP, optical disc controller, servo logic and two 32bit embedded microprocessors.

The AT78C4050 is now available at a unit cost of $8 in quantities of 100. A hardware and firmware reference design is also available.

The AT78C4050 is also available with an optional serial ATA chip, which leverages Atmel's transceiver (PHY) technology. This product provides DVD-storage OEMs the ability to develop mainstream PC DVD storage, set-top boxes and recorder subsystems.