Managing Member Companies of HD DVD Promotion Group Welcome Intel and Microsoft as Newest Members of the Group

27 September, 2005


Memory-Tech Corporation
NEC Corporation
SANYO Electric Co., Ltd.
Toshiba Corporation

TOKYO— Memory-Tech Corporation, NEC Corporation, SANYO Electric Co., Ltd. and Toshiba Corporation, the managing member companies of the HD DVD Promotion Group, today warmly welcomed Intel Corporation and Microsoft Corporation's announcement of support for the HD DVD format and their decision to join the HD DVD Promotion Group.

In a statement issued in Tokyo on behalf of the HD DVD Promotion Group, the four companies noted that: "The participation of the two global leaders in the IT industry will assure enhancement of HD DVD format promotion, bring their technical and marketing expertise to the Group, and will contribute to the early market penetration of HD DVD products."

"The capacity for volume production of HD DVD discs is already in place, and the content industry has great expectations of HD DVD as the key product to sustain the growth of the next-generation audio-visual software market," said Shiroharu Kawasaki, President and CEO of Memory-Tech. "We welcome the participation of Intel and Microsoft as further enhancing HD DVD's potential applications."

"HD DVD format is extremely important for the development of both the PC and AV markets, as it fulfills the needs of PC applications requiring high-capacity data and AV applications that require the recording and playback of high definition images," said Hiroshi Gokan, NEC's Executive General Manager of Computers Storage Products Operations Unit. "We are fully confident that Intel and Microsoft's affiliation with the HD DVD Promotion Group will significantly contribute to the propulsion and penetration of the HD DVD format".

"SANYO believes that the participation of the two leaders of the US IT industry in the HD DVD Promotion Group will accelerate the synergistic conversion of the technologies they have nurtured in the PC and server industries with those from the digital consumer domain, encouraging further technology innovation and the creation of new markets," said Hiroshi Ono, General Manager of SANYO's R&D Headquarters.

"The announcement from these two leading IT companies reconfirms the design advantages of HD DVD format and its achievement of maximum compatibility between AV and PC products. In fact, it is increasingly clear that HD DVD offers the best way forward in the convergence of the AV and PC worlds," said Hisashi Yamada, Chief Fellow of Toshiba's Digital Media Network Company and Chairman of Technical Coordination Group at the DVD Forum. "Hollywood studios are now working on preparation of HD DVD content, and I look forward to the near future, when people everywhere will be able to enjoy high definition images on TV and their PC."

About HD DVD Promotion Group
Established on December 22, 2004, the HD DVD Promotion Group is a voluntary organization dedicated to promoting development and assuring the early impact and long-term success of products and content based on the new HD DVD formats. Membership in the Group is open to any company or organization that is engaged, or will engage, in the development and/or manufacture of any HD DVD content or hardware products. As of today, the Group has 110 member companies.

For more information on the HD DVD Promotion Group please visit:
http://www.hddvdprg.com/

Features of HD DVD
HD DVD is standardized by the DVD Forum, the international association of some 240 companies, and its physical, file and application formats have been all approved by the Forum.

In addition to a versatility that assures support for many applications, including players, recorders, PCs and automotive devices, HD DVD's main features are:

1) The same disc structure as DVD, two 0.6mm-thick polycarbonate discs bonded back-to-back, makes it much easier for HD DVD to achieve backward compatibility with DVD. It also assures easier manufacturing of discs and hardware devices, resulting in lower manufacturing costs.
2) Robust playability, with no need for a disc cartridge to protect against surface blemishes and fingerprints.
3) The ability to meet all capacity demands. The DVD Forum has approved HD DVD-ROM discs with a data capacity of 30GB, and higher capacities are on the way. High data capacity is achieved by adopting a shorter wavelength blue-violet laser and advanced data processing technologies, assuring the ability to store large capacity data sources including high-definition images.
4) Adoption of iHD technology to deliver enhanced user interactivity on PCs and assures optimization for both AV and PC applications.

Information in the press releases, including product prices and specifications, content of services and contact information, is current on the date of the press announcement,but is subject to change without prior notice.