Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd and Matsushita Electronics Corp are preparing two new products for the digital video disk market (DVD). The Nihon Keizai Shimbun reports that the two firms have collaborated on an integrated semiconductor for DVD players. The system on a chip can be used to decompress visual data stored on DVD disks. There are no details on pricing yet but the company intends to begin volume production in September, with own-brand players incorporating the chip out at the same time. The chip will also be sold to other DVD manufacturers. Meanwhile, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd will begin to ship PC DVD-ROM drives that it claims are five times faster than existing models in August. The company intends to manufacture approximately 1 million units by the end of this year.
