Nu Tech DDW-081: More DVD+R madness
by Kristopher Kubicki on October 22, 2003 10:54 PM EST- Posted in
- Storage
Nexperia PNX7850: Powering the Nu Tech DDW-081
The Nu Tech DDW-081 is based on one of the newer Philips chipsets, the PNX7850. Philips is a great company for documentation, so you can read the whole whitepaper on the chipset here. The chipset itself is fairly basic — 32-bit MIPS RISC processor with DSP, DMA66 and audio processor. Obviously, manufacturers try to pull as much functionality as possible into the integrated processor; therefore, eliminating the cost of additional chips or additional processing power.
Philips Reference design. Click to enlarge.
What bothers us about this chipset is that it only technically supports 4X DVD+R and DVD+RW. What further bothers us even more is that it supports 16X DVD read, while our DVD drive is only capable of 12X. However, features like 3mm scratch handling and adjustable laser strength (think PowerRec from Plextor) are comforting. Just recently, Nu Tech confirmed with us that the Philips Nexperia PNX7850 is in fact capable of 8X DVD+R because it has been optimized by Nu Tech/QSI engineers.
Click to enlarge.
Above, you can see the drive mainboard. Click to enlarge and you can identify the Philips markings on the big square chip.
Edit: Thanks to one of our readers, I have found out the Nexperia 7850 chipset does support 8X, although I do not know if it is the same implementation as with the Nu Tech DDW-081. Click here to read me. Interestingly, both chipsets still claim 16X DVD read speed.
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Anonymous User - Thursday, October 23, 2003 - link
United Micro has it for $139 shipped.http://www.unitedmicro.com/partw.cgi?DWNT006++5
Anonymous User - Thursday, October 23, 2003 - link
#11: My apologies, I did use DiskInfo Pro.Here is what DIP says AFTER I burned the media.
YUDEN Disks labeled Plextor
Media Information
Region information N/A not a DVD-VIDEO
Media code/Manufacturer ID YUDEN000T01
Format Capacity 4.38GB(4.70GB)
Book Type DVD+R
Media Type DVD+R
Media Id Code Speed 4.0x 5540KBps
Data area starting sector 30000h
Data area end sector 23053Fh
Linear Density 0.267um/bit
Track Density 0.74um/track
Number of Layers 1
RICOH Disks labeled Imation
Media Information
Region information N/A not a DVD-VIDEO
Media code/Manufacturer ID RICOHJPNR01
Format Capacity 4.38GB(4.70GB)
Book Type DVD+R
Media Type DVD+R
Media Id Code Speed 4.0x 5540KBps
Data area starting sector 30000h
Data area end sector 23053Fh
Linear Density 0.267um/bit
Track Density 0.74um/track
Number of Layers 1
MMC Disks labeled Verbatim
Media Information
Region information N/A not a DVD-VIDEO
Media code/Manufacturer ID RICOHJPNR01
Format Capacity 4.38GB(4.70GB)
Book Type DVD+R
Media Type DVD+R
Media Id Code Speed 4.0x 5540KBps
Data area starting sector 30000h
Data area end sector 23053Fh
Linear Density 0.267um/bit
Track Density 0.74um/track
Number of Layers 1
Another Ricoh Disk labeled FujiFilm
Media Information
Region information N/A not a DVD-VIDEO
Media code/Manufacturer ID RICOHJPNR00
Format Capacity 4.38GB(4.70GB)
Book Type DVD-ROM
Media Type DVD+R
Media Id Code Speed 2.4x 3324KBps
Data area starting sector 30000h
Data area end sector 23053Fh
Linear Density 0.267um/bit
Track Density 0.74um/track
Number of Layers 1
There are two things I'd like to point out. The first being DiskInfoPro identified the MCC disk as 8X before it was burned. Furthermore, the FujiFilm disk was identified as 4X on the box, and 4X in DiskInfoPro before it was burned.
#12: Thank you for the updated link. The PDF I recieved was straight from QSI and I was unaware there was an update on the chipset.
Cheers,
Kristopher
Anonymous User - Thursday, October 23, 2003 - link
Yes... MMC 02 is capable of 8x with that drive. That's why your utility is saying that. However, that doesn't mean that Verbatim/Mitsu. actually rates it at that speed.Anonymous User - Thursday, October 23, 2003 - link
One more thing, in the review you claim that the PNX7850 chipset does not support 8x speed. Not true, it does: http://www.semiconductors.philips.com/acrobat/lite...It was only early versions that didn't support 8x. The PDF you link to is for the complete reference design where the Philips OPU 66.20 limits the speed to 4x (I assume QSI uses a different PUH).
Anonymous User - Thursday, October 23, 2003 - link
Then Diskinfo is wrong because MCC 002 (as in Mitsubishi Chemical Corp. and not MMC) DVD+R media are only certified for 4x speed. Use DVDInfoPro or DVDIndentifier instead for checking the media.Anonymous User - Thursday, October 23, 2003 - link
Thanks Christopher :)for the linksAnonymous User - Thursday, October 23, 2003 - link
#1: We did not have a verbatim disk included. We have a 4X DVD+RW instead. Remember, we had a review sample so ours might have been slightly different. We had to upgrade from QSI firmware just to bring ours to spec with the retail drives.#2: DiskInfo, kind of a neat utlity, claimed the MMC 02 disk is capable of 4X and 8X.
I uploaded the firmware for anyone who wants to download it. Its on the last page of the article.
Cheers,
Kristopher
Murse - Thursday, October 23, 2003 - link
You can also take a look at this thread:http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=...
They sell it at Newegg, Excaliberpc, Atacom, Unitedmicro, Zipzoomfly...to name a few.
Anonymous User - Thursday, October 23, 2003 - link
Check this thread there are a few sites mentioned..http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=12956...
Anonymous User - Thursday, October 23, 2003 - link
If anybody knows where you can buy one, please post a link. Thank you.