Intersil laser diode driver will power Hitachi-LG DVD+-/RW/RAM drives

MILPITAS, CA, April 23, 2003 ‘“ Intersil
Corporation (NASDAQ: ISIL), a world leader in the design and manufacture of high
performance analog and wireless networking solutions, today announced that its
programmable Elantec® laser diode driver is being used to help enable high-speed
recording in Hitachi-LG Data Storage, Inc.’s new GSA-4040B disk drive — the
world’s first drive to support the writing of all of the writable DVD and CD
formats including DVD RAM. Intersil’s new Elantec EL6918 programmable laser
diode driver (LDD) offers the flexible architecture needed to support different
media, DVD or CD standards and read/write speeds required for Hitachi-LG’s
GSA-4040B disk drive, expected to be available in June.

‘Innovation of
the type provided by the Intersil team and their new Elantec laser diode driver
helped us to quickly develop this innovative, first-of-a-kind disk drive,” said
Hiroaki Nakamura, Vice President & Chief Technical Officer of Hitachi-LG
Data Storage. ‘Intersil’s application expertise combined with the flexibility
and programmability of their write strategy generator LDD will enable Hitachi-LG
to add to our leadership in optical storage with a product that supports all DVD
and CD formats. We look forward to expanding our relationship with Intersil when
we offer these innovative new disk drives in the coming months.”

‘This
latest design win with Hitachi-LG underscores our position as the world’s
leading supplier of laser diode drivers for the optical storage market,” said
Simon Prutton, Intersil’s director of marketing for the Elantec Product Group.
‘We’ve enjoyed a close working relationship with Hitachi and Hitachi-LG on the
development of our family of write strategy laser drivers and are delighted to
have been able to contribute to their breakthrough new optical disk
drive.”

The Elantec EL6918 is the latest addition to Intersil’s growing
family of laser diode drivers. The first laser diode driver with programmable
write-strategy engine was developed in 2000 as the result of a joint development
between Hitachi , Ltd., Japan and Elantec semiconductor, inc.. The EL6918 LDD
with waveform generator simplifies the design of multi-standard writable optical
drives by integrating all of the timing and power control algorithms required
into the laser driver itself. Programming is accomplished through a serial
interface port and the architecture allows reprogramming of the timing to
support different media, DVD or CD standards, and different speeds. An
integrated high frequency modulator (HFM) oscillator is programmable to 100
milliamps peak-to-peak from 200MHz to 600MHz. The device incorporates two laser
outputs to support read/write DVD and CD combinations and offers 100-picosecond
(psec) timer resolution.

EL6918 Key Features

• 350mA maximum drive current
  
• 100 psec timer resolution
  
• Dual outputs support read /write DVD and CD
  combinations
  
• 8 X 8 bit multiplying DAC output (provides 8 bit
  full scale adjustment and 8 bit resolution)
  
• Programmable waveform values support DVD-RAM,
  DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW and CD-R/RW
  
• Programmable High Frequency Modulator (HFM)
  
  
• Programmable HFM offset when HFM is off
  
• Two analog inputs support slope and read APC
  
  
• PLL allows reduced-frequency clock on flex cable
  
  
• Serial input works up to 25 MHz
  
• 32-pin leadless plastic package
  

Source: Intersil