Panasonic to Launch Blu-ray Drives for PCs in Japan

Panasonic today announced that the company will introduce a half-height internal Blu-ray Disc (BD) drive for desktop computers in Japan on June 10, 2006. The LF-MB121JD BD drive, which can read and write single-layer and dual-layer BDs, is also fully backwards compatible with DVD-ROM/DVD±R/DVD±RW/DVD-RAM as well as CD-ROM/CD-R/CD-RW. The drive will come bundled with a wide variety of software to help users easily backup and archive a large amount of data, edit video and audio and intuitively drag and drop data for DVD and CD burning. Panasonic also announced that it will make the half-height BD drive for desktop computers and slim-line slot and tray loading BD drives for notebook PCs available for OEM clients starting this month.