Matsushita and Hitachi push on with DVD-Ram

Peripherals vendors Hitachi and Matsushita have unveiled the first Ram drives and disks based on the digital video disk (DVD) standard, despite the slow uptake of the technology.

Although 10 companies ratified the standard last month and Microsoft featured DVD in its beta release of Memphis ? the operating system that will replace Windows 95 next year ? Compaq, Sony and Toshiba PCs with DVD drives will not be available until the summer.

Toshiba has led the DVD revolution and has released consumer DVD players in the US, along with a DVD-Rom upgrade kit similar to the one offered by Creative Labs. But the adoption of DVD in the IT industry has been slowed by copyright and security issues, despite its digital quality sound and video capabilities.

In April, consortium members Toshiba, Mitsubishi Electric, Hitachi, Pioneer Electronics, Matsushita Electric and Time Warner agreed a standard for DVD-Ram drives (PC Dealer, 16 April). The Ram drives enable users to record sound and images as opposed to DVD Roms which can only play back.