The BDR-101A drive is compatible with non-cartridge single-layer recordable BD-R and rewritable BD-RW discs and single and dual-layer read-only BD-ROM discs, the company says. It is also compatible with a wide range of DVD-based media and can write DVD-R and DVD-RW discs, says Pioneer.

Pioneer plans to initially offer it direct to Japanese PC makers for inclusion in their desktop computers and systems and will later expand sales to other countries, says Akira Muneto, a spokesperson for Pioneer in Tokyo. It's scheduled to be available in the U.S. during the first quarter of 2006. This schedule means that PCs on the market boasting Blu-ray Disc support could appear in the first half of 2006.

The drive will have an ATAPI interface that delivers a data transfer rate of 33MB per second, says Muneto.

The technology will first be available to Japanese computer manufacturers, with manufacturers in other territories such as the U.S. to follow in the first quarter of 2006. Sony has been putting a lot of weight behind Blu-ray, and its biggest push to get the technology into homes will be its inclusion in the company's upcoming PlayStation 3. Microsoft is backing the competing media format HD-DVD--there are fairly credible rumors that later revisions of Xbox 360 will include HD-DVD capability for movie playback--and the company has been known to claim HD-DVD will hit the market before Blu-ray. It doesn't look like that will be happening at this point.