Atmel has announced the availability of its new ATR0885 laser diode driver IC for use in HD-DVD and Blu-ray players. Here's part of their press release:
Atmel Corporation (Nasdaq: ATML - News), a global leader in the development and fabrication of advanced semiconductor solutions, announced today the availability of its new ATR0885 laser diode driver IC for use in combined HD-DVD/Blu-ray, DVD, CD players and PC CD-ROM drives. HD-DVD and Blu-ray are new disc standards, which will offer significantly more storage capacity than today's DVD standards. Since the new ATR0885 is available in very small packages, it is particularly suitable for small SLIM drives used in notebook computers, as well as for half-height drives used in desktop PCs and consumer DVD players. The ATR0885 is the industry's first available product for such applications and enables outstanding cost-effectiveness, an important factor for high-volume consumer products.
Hopefully this will help lower the cost of HD DVD and Blu-ray players some. If you'd like to read more, Atmel's entire press release can be found here.