Singulus to Develop and Manufacture Production Equipment for Blu-ray Disc

Singulus Technologies, the world's leading maker of optical disc replication equipment, announced today that it will manufacture production equipment for pre-recorded Blu-ray Discs (BD-ROM). "We are very excited to be working on the Blu-ray Disc, especially at the birth of the new format." said Roland Lacher, CEO and President of Singulus Technologies.

"We believe that there is a great future in Blu-ray Disc as the next generation optical discs. We look forward to supplying our customers with competitive equipment that will enable them to make a smooth transition to the new high definition world. We expect that the long-term manufacturing costs for mass production of the BD-ROM will be similar to DVD, as will the price for BD-ROM production equipment." Prototype machines will be available in Spring 2005 for single-layer BD-ROM and in Fall 2005 for dual-layer BD-ROM.