May 6, 2005

TDK TO PRODUCE 23.3GB BLUE LASER DISCS

GARDEN CITY, NY - TDK Corporation (www.tdk.com) has reached a licensing agreement with Sony to begin manufacturing and distributing TDK Professional Disc (PD-RE23CN) media, re-writable optical discs that provide compatibility with Sony's XDCAM systems. The discs use a blue-violet laser with a short wavelength for recording and playing back. The media offers 23.3GB of storage as well as a rapid transfer rate of 72Mbps.

To help minimize errors due to dust or scratches on the disc's surface, TDK will use its Durabis Pro2 hard coating technology to provide high durability and reliability with these new discs. The discs will be available in June and are expected to offer as many as 10,000 overwrites. Long term storage is estimated to be over 50 years.