According to news published at Tech-On, NEC announced the release (in Japan at the moment) of a new SoC, named SCOMBO/UM2A, designed for use in Blu-ray Disc systems that support 8x recording and playback.
Compared to the previous version of this chip (allowing 5x speed), this is a significative improvement.
Another version of the chip, named SCOMBO/UM2P, features the playback function only, again improving performance in reading speed (a more than welcome feature for computer drives).
The integration of all features on a single chip, moreover, will reduce power consumption.
