How NEC Sets the CD-ROM Standard With MultiSpin Technology

(Wood Dale, Ill., February 15, 1993) -- Until NEC raised the data transfer
rate performance standard, the speed of a CD-ROM reader was measured
solely by the time it took to access information. With the launch of the
NEC InterSect M Series of CD-ROM readers in January 1992, NEC
Technologies, Inc. created a new CD-ROM performance standard by being the
first company to dramatically improve the data transfer rate as well.

Now, NEC's entire new line of MultiSpin M CD-ROM readers -- the MultiSpin
74 external, MultiSpin 84 internal, and MultiSpin 38 portable CD-ROM
readers -- are armed with NEC's proprietary MultiSpin technology, giving
them an impressive data transfer rate of 300KB/second. In addition, all
members of the MultiSpin family of CD-ROM readers are Multisession Kodak
Photo CD compatible and have switchable settings for SCSI 1 and SCSI 2
interface standards.

What is MultiSpin Technology?

NEC's MultiSpin technology enables the MultiSpin 74, MultiSpin 84 and
MultiSpin 38 to transfer data at 300KB/second when retrieving text,
graphics and video information -- doubling the industry standard rate of
150KB/second. When playing only sound, the readers automatically adjust to
spin at 150KB/second.

"Without a high-performance data transfer rate, users are not getting full
performance from their CD-ROM readers, regardless of how fast their access
times might be," explained Marc Miller, NEC vice president and general
manager of NEC's Optical Media and Multimedia Group. "NEC's proprietary
MultiSpin technology and significantly improved data transfer rate provide
top performance and the smoothest motion video available in CD-ROM
multimedia computing."

Why Do End Users Need MultiSpin Technology?

In the past when CD-ROM drives accessed mainly textual data, the old
standard of measuring CD-ROM reader speed by access time was sufficient.
With the development of the Multimedia PC (MPC) and Apple Quicktime M
specifications and CD-ROM applications offering motion video from a CD,
NEC realized that the performance standard needed to be raised in
anticipation of the progress and changes in the industry.

"We recognized early on that end users were requiring more performance from
their CD-ROM readers than just fast access times," explained Miller. "In
response to increasing performance demands, NEC was the first company to
develop double throughput capability and MultiSpin technology, eliminating
the time-lags once associated with CD-ROM computing and demonstrating our
commitment to providing our customers with state-of-the-art technology
solutions."

How Did NEC Do It?

Using part of the $3 billion NEC spends annually on new product research
and development, NEC engineers began their quest to double the
150KB/second data transfer rate over two years ago. Their first step was
to double the speed of the CD-ROM drive spindle motor, which in turn spun
the disc twice as fast. The engineers also had to speed up the transport
motor to work in sync with the faster spindle motor. The transport motor
moves the read head on the disc to locate desired information.

Spinning the disc faster sounds easy enough, but in order to fully realize
the true benefits of MultiSpin technology, NEC also had to find a way to
handle the information. While spinning the disc faster released twice as
much data from the disc, most existing CD-ROM readers were only able to
transfer the data at the old rate of 150KB/second. NEC engineers had to
develop a way for the CD-ROM readers to process the data twice as fast as
well. 

NEC Team Improves Decoding Chip's Performance

To manage the increased amount of data, NEC had to dramatically improve the
performance of the Error Correction Code (ECC) decoding chip. If the ECC
decoder chip is not optimized, an information bottleneck occurs due to the
increased influx of information. Unless the information bottleneck is
addressed, simply spinning the disc faster will not improve drive
performance.

NEC's research and development team responded to the data transfer rate
challenge by developing the first ECC decoder chip to transfer data at
300KB per second. It was nearly a year before any other CD-ROM
manufacturer was able to produce a similar chip. While NEC's drives are
capable of spinning twice as fast as standard 150KB per second CD-ROM
readers, it is NEC's ECC decoder chip that gives the MultiSpin family of
CD-ROM readers their 300KB/second data transfer rate and true MultiSpin
functionality.

NEC's Product Line Now Available With MultiSpin Technology

Starting February 15, NEC's entire Advanced Media product line, including
Multimedia Gallery and the NEC Multimedia Upgrade Kit are available with
the new NEC MultiSpin 74.

NEC Technologies, Inc. is a leading manufacturer of computers and
peripherals for the North American market. Product lines include,
award-winning ProSpeed laptop computers, UltraLite notebook computers,
MultiSync monitors, Silentwriter and Colormate printers, PowerMate, Image,
PowerMate Express and Ready systems products, and MultiSpin CD-ROM
hardware. NEC Technologies, Inc. is a subsidiary of NEC Corporation.

NEC Technologies
1255 Michael Dr, Wood Dale, IL 60191
708-860-9500

  +---------------------------------------------------------------+
  |   From the America Online - New Product Information Services  |
  +===============================================================+
  | This information was processed from data provided by the      |
  | above mentioned company. For additional details, contact the  |
  | company at the address or telephone number indicated above.   |
  |    All submissions for this service should be addressed to    |
  |   BAKER ENTERPRISES, 20 Ferro Drive, Sewell, NJ 08080 U.S.A.  |
  +---------------------------------------------------------------+
