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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION

Symbian is an open source operating system (OS) and software

platform designed for smartphones and currently maintained by Nokia. The Symbian
platform is the successor to Symbian OS and Nokia Series 60; unlike Symbian OS,
which needed an additional user interface system, Symbian includes a user interface
component based on S60 5th Edition. The latest version, Symbian^3, was officially
released in Q4 2010, first used in the Nokia N8.

1.1 History
The Symbian platform was created by merging and integrating software assets
contributed by Nokia, NTT DoCoMo, Sony Ericsson and Symbian Ltd., including
Symbian OS assets at its core, the S60 platform, and parts of
the UIQ and MOAP(S) user interfaces.

In December 2008, Nokia bought Symbian Ltd., the company behind Symbian

OS; as a result, Nokia has become the major contributor to Symbian's code, as it now
had the development resources for both the Symbian OS core and the user interface.
Since then, Nokia has been maintaining their own code repository for the platform
development, regularly releasing their development to the public repository.

Symbian was intended to be developed by a community led by the Symbian

Foundation, which was first announced in June 2008 and which officially launched in
April 2009. Its objective was to publish the source code for the entire Symbian
platform under the OSI- and FSF-approved Eclipse Public License (EPL). The code
was published under EPL on 4 February 2010; Symbian Foundation reported this
event to be the largest codebase transitioned to Open Source in history.

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1.2 Version history

Symbian releases are styled Symbian^1, Symbian^2 etc. (vocalized as

"Symbian one", "Symbian two").

Symbian^1, as the first release, forms the basis for the platform. It
incorporates Symbian OS and S60 5th Edition (which is built on Symbian OS 9.4)
and thus it was not made available as open source.

Symbian^2 was the first royalty-free version of Symbian. While portions of

Symbian^2 are EPL licensed, most of the source code is under the proprietary SFL
license and available only to members of the Symbian Foundation. On June 1, 2010, a
number of Japanese companies including DoCoMo and Sharp announced
smartphones using Symbian^2.

Symbian^3 was announced on 15 February 2010. It was designed to be a

more ‘next generation’ smartphone platform. The Symbian^3 release introduced new
features such as a new 2D and 3D graphics architecture, UI improvements, and
support for external displays through HDMI. It has single tap menus and up to three
customizable homescreens. The Symbian^3 SDK (Software Development Kit) was
released September 2010.

Symbian^4 was expected to be released in the first half of 2011. However,

Nokia announced in October 2010 that Symbian^4 will not ship as a separate release.
Instead, improvements to Symbian will be delivered as software updates to all current
Symbian^3 devices.

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CHAPTER 2
FEATURES

2.1 User interface

Symbian has had a native graphics toolkit since its inception, known as
AVKON (formerly known as Series 60). S60 was designed to be manipulated by a
keyboard-like interface metaphor, such as the ~15-key augmented telephone keypad,
or the mini-QWERTY keyboards. AVKON-based software is binary-compatible with
Symbian versions up to and including Symbian^3.

Symbian^3 includes the Qt framework, which is now the recommended user

interface toolkit for new applications. Qt can also be installed on older Symbian
devices.

Symbian^4 was planned to introduce a new GUI library framework

specifically designed for a touch-based interface, known as "UI Extensions for
Mobile" or UIEMO (internal project name "Orbit"), which was built on top of Qt; a
preview was released in January 2010, however in October 2010 Nokia announced
that Orbit/UIEMO has been cancelled.

Nokia currently recommends that developers use Qt Quick with QML, the

new high-level GUI and scripting framework for creating visually rich touchscreen
interfaces that allows development for both Symbian and MeeGo; it will be delivered
to existing Symbian^3 devices as a Qt update. As more applications will gradually
feature a user interface reworked in Qt, the legacy S60 framework (AVKON) will be
deprecated and no longer included with new devices at some point, thus breaking
binary compatibility with older S60 applications.

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2.2 Browser

Symbian^3 and earlier have a native WebKit based browser; indeed, Symbian

was the first mobile platform to make use of WebKit (in June 2005). Nokia plans to
introduce a new Qt-based browser as a free update for Symbian^3 devices.

2.3 Application development

From 2010, Symbian switched to using standard C++ with Qt as the SDK,
which can be used with either Qt Creator or Carbide. Qt supports the older Symbian
S60 3rd and 5th editions, as well as the new Symbian platform. It also
supports Maemo and MeeGo, Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. Alternative
application development can be done with using Python Adobe Flash or Java ME.

Symbian OS previously used a Symbian specific C++ version along

with Carbide.c++ integrated development environment (IDE) as the native application
development environment.

Web Runtime (WRT) is a portable application framework that allows

creating widgets on the S60 Platform; it is an extension to the S60 WebKit based
browser that allows launching multiple browser instances as separate JavaScript
applications.

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CHAPTER 3
ARCHITECTURE

3.1 Technology domains and packages

Symbian's design is subdivided into technology domains, each of which

comprises a number of software packages. Each technology domain has its own
roadmap, and the Symbian Foundation has a team of technology managers who
manage these technology domain roadmaps.

Every package is allocated to exactly one technology domain, based on the

general functional area to which the package contributes and by which it may be
influenced. By grouping related packages by themes, the Symbian Foundation hopes
to encourage a strong community to form around them and to generate discussion and
review.

Packages are owned and maintained by a package owner, a named individual

from an organization member of the Symbian Foundation, who accepts code
contributions from the wider Symbian community and is responsible for package.

3.2 Symbian kernel

The Symbian kernel (EKA2) supports sufficiently-fast real-time response to

build a single-core phone around it—that is, a phone in which a single processor core
executes both the user applications and the signalling stack. The real-time kernel has
a microkernel architecture that contains only the minimum, most basic primitives and
functionality, for maximum robustness, availability and responsiveness. It has been
termed a nanokernel, because it needs an extended kernel to implement any other
abstractions. It contains a scheduler, memory management and device drivers, with
networking, telephony and file system support services in the OS Services Layer or
the Base Services Layer.

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3.3 Design

Symbian features pre-emptive multitasking and memory protection, like other

operating systems (especially those created for use on desktop computers).

Symbian OS was created with three systems design principles in mind:

 the integrity and security of user data is paramount,

 user time must not be wasted, and
 all resources are scarce.

To best follow these principles, Symbian uses a microkernel, has a request-and-

callback approach to services, and maintains separation between user interface and
engine. The OS is optimised for low-power battery-based devices and for ROM-based
systems .Applications, and the OS itself, follow an object-oriented design.

There is a strong emphasis on conserving resources which is exemplified by

Symbian-specific programming idioms like descriptors and a cleanup stack. Similar
methods exist to conserve disk space, though disks on Symbian devices are
usually flash memory. Further, all Symbian programming is event-based, and
the central processing unit (CPU) is switched into a low power mode when
applications are not directly dealing with an event. This is done via a programming
idiom called active objects. Similarly the Symbian approach to threads and processes
is driven by reducing overheads.

3.4 Operating system

The All over Model contains the following layers, from top to bottom as shown in
figure 3.1

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1. UI Framework Layer
2. Application Services Layer
 Java ME
3. OS Services Layer
 generic OS services
 communications services
 multimedia and graphics services
 connectivity services
4. Base Services Layer
5. Kernel Services & Hardware Interface Layer

The Base Services Layer is the lowest level reachable by user-side operations;
it includes the File Server and User Library, a Plug-In Framework which manages all
plug-ins, Store, Central Repository, DBMS and cryptographic services. It also
includes the Text Window Server and the Text Shell: the two basic services from

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which a completely functional port can be created without the need for any higher
layer services.

Symbian has a microkernel architecture, which means that the minimum

necessary is within the kernel to maximise robustness, availability and
responsiveness. It contains a scheduler,memory management and device drivers, but
other services like networking, telephony and filesystem support are placed in the OS
Services Layer or the Base Services Layer. The inclusion of device drivers means the
kernel is not a true microkernel. The EKA2 real-time kernel, which has been termed
a nanokernel, contains only the most basic primitives and requires an extended kernel
to implement any other abstractions.

Symbian is designed to emphasise compatibility with other devices, especially

removable media file systems. Early development of EPOC led to adopting FAT as
the internal file system, and this remains, but an object-oriented persistence model
was placed over the underlying FAT to provide a POSIX-style interface and a
streaming model. The internal data formats rely on using the same APIs that create
the data to run all file manipulations. This has resulted in data-dependence and
associated difficulties with changes and data migration.

There is a large networking and communication subsystem, which has three

main servers called: ETEL (EPOC telephony), ESOCK (EPOC sockets) and C32
(responsible for serial communication). Each of these has a plug-in scheme. For
example, ESOCK allows different ".PRT" protocol modules to implement various
networking protocol schemes. The subsystem also contains code that supports short-
range communication links, such as Bluetooth, IrDA and USB.

There is also a large volume of user interface (UI) Code. Only the base classes
and substructure were contained in Symbian OS, while most of the actual user

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interfaces were maintained by third parties. This is no longer the case. The three
major UIs — S60, UIQ and MOAP — were contributed to Symbian in 2009. Symbian
also contains graphics, text layout and font rendering libraries.

 Java ME providing set of APIs on top of of the OS. It is a framework, and

vendors are expected to supply plug-ins to these framework from third parties). This
has the advantage that the APIs to such areas of functionality are the same on many
phone models, and that vendors get a lot of flexibility. But it means that phone
vendors needed to do a great deal of integration work to make a Symbian OS phone.

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CHAPTER 4

APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT

4.1 Qt

As of 2010, the SDK for Symbian is standard C++, using Qt. It can be used
with either Qt Creator, or Carbide (the older IDE previously used for Symbian
development). A phone simulator allows testing of Qt apps. Apps compiled for the
simulator are compiled to native code for the development platform, rather than
having to be emulated.

4.2 Symbian C++

It is also possible to develop using Symbian C++, although it is not a standard

implementation. Before the release of the Qt SDK, this was the standard development
environment. There were multiple platforms based on Symbian OS that
provided software development kit (SDKs) for application developers wishing to
target Symbian OS devices, the main ones being UIQ and S60. Individual phone
products, or families, often had SDKs or SDK extensions downloadable from the
maker's website too.

4.3 Other languages

Symbian devices can also be programmed using Python, Java ME, Flash

Lite, Ruby, .NET, Web Runtime (WRT) Widgets and Standard C/C++.

Visual Basic programmers can use NS Basic to develop apps for S60 3rd
Edition and UIQ 3 devices.

In the past, Visual Basic, VB.NET, and C# development for Symbian were
possible through AppForge Crossfire, a plugin for Microsoft Visual Studio. On 13
March 2007 AppForge ceased operations; Oracle purchased the intellectual property,
but announced that they did not plan to sell or provide support for former AppForge

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products. Net60, a .NET compact framework for Symbian, which is developed by

redFIVElabs, is sold as a commercial product. With Net60, VB.NET and C# (and
other) source code is compiled into an intermediate language (IL) which is executed
within the Symbian OS using a just-in-time compiler.

Java ME applications for Symbian OS are developed using standard

techniques and tools such as the Sun Java Wireless Toolkit (formerly the J2ME
Wireless Toolkit). They are packaged as JAR (and possibly JAD) files.

Nokia S60 phones can also run Python scripts when the interpreter Python for
S60 is installed, with a custom made API that allows for Bluetooth support and such.
There is also an interactive console to allow the user to write python scripts directly
from the phone.

4.4 Deployment

Once developed, Symbian applications need to find a route to customers'

mobile phones. They are packaged in SIS files which may be installed over-the-air,
via PC connect, Bluetooth or on a memory card. An alternative is to partner with a
phone manufacturer and have the software included on the phone itself. Applications
must be Symbian Signed for Symbian OS 9.x in order to make use of certain
capabilities.

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CHAPTER 5

CRITICISM
5.1

When the CD was introduced in the early 80s, it meant an enormous leap from
traditional media. Not only did it offer a significant improvement in audio quality, its
primary application, but its 650 MB storage capacity also meant a giant leap in data
storage and retrieval. For the first time, there was a universal standard for pre-
recorded, recordable and rewritable media, offering the best quality and features
consumers could wish for themselves, at very low costs.

Although the CD was a very useful medium for the recording and distribution
of audio and some modest data-applications, demand for a new medium offering
higher storage capacities rose in the 90s. These demands lead to the evolution of the
DVD specification and a five to ten fold increase in capacity. This enabled high
quality, standard definition video distribution and recording. Furthermore, the
increased capacity accommodated more demanding data applications. At the same

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time, the DVD spec used the same form factor as the CD, allowing for seamless
migration to the next generation format and offering full backwards compatibility.

Now, in the next millennium, High Definition video is demanding a new

solution. History proved that a significant five to ten time increase in storage capacity
and the ability to play previous generation formats are key elements for a new format
to succeed. This new format has arrived with the advent of Blu-ray Disc, the only
format that offers a considerable increase in storage capacity with its 25 to 50 GB data
capacity. This allows for the next big application of optical media: the distribution and
recording of High Definition video in the highest possible quality. In fact, no other
proposed format can offer the data capacity of Blu-ray Disc, and no other format will
allow for the same high video quality and interactive features to create the ultimate
user experience. As with DVD, the Blu-ray Disc format is based on the same, bare
disc physical form factor, allowing for compatibility with CD and DVD.

The standards for 12-cm optical discs, CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray rewritable
discs (BD-RE Standard) were established in 1982, 1996, and 2002, respectively. The
recording capacity required by applications was the important issue when these
standards were decided.

Fig 1.1-EVOLUTION OF CONSUMER OPTICAL DISCS

The requirement for CDs was 74 minutes of recording 2-channel audio signals
and a capacity of about 800 MB. For DVDs, the requirement as a video disc was the

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recording of a movie with a length of two hours and fifteen minutes using the SD
(Standard Definition) with MPEG-2 compression. The capacity was determined to be
4.7 GB considering the balance with image quality (fig-1.1). In the case of the Blu-ray
Disc, abbreviated as BD hereafter, a recording of an HDTV digital broadcast greater
than two hours is needed since the BS digital broadcast started in 2000 and terrestrial
digital broadcast has begun in 2003. It was a big motivation for us to realize the
recorder using the optical disc. In a DVD recorder, received and decoded video
signals are compressed by an MPEG encoder and then recorded on the disc. To record
in the same fashion for an HDTV broadcast, an HDTV MPEG-2 encoder is required.
However, such a device for home use has not yet been produced. In the case of BS
digital broadcasts, signals are sent as a program stream at a fixed rate, which is 24
Mbps for one HDTV program. In the program stream of BS digital broadcast there is
a case that the additional data stream is multiplexed, and it is desirable to record and
read the data as is.

CHAPTER 2
BLU-RAY DISC KEY CHARACTERISTICS

2.1 Broadest Industry Support

History has shown that unified industry support for a particular format is most
likely to lead to success. Therefore, the participation of the world's most renowned
consumer electronics manufacturers and IT companies are leading in the success of
the best standard for next generation storage: Blu-ray Disc. Blu-ray Disc is supported
by leading hardware manufacturers across the CE and IT fields from the U.S., Europe,
Japan and Korea, including Dell, HP, Hitachi, LG Electronics, Matsushita
(Panasonic), Mitsubishi, Pioneer, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony and Thomson/RCA.
Finally, major blank media manufacturers including TDK are supporting the Blu-ray
Disc format as the successor of DVD. This broad industry support will lead to a broad
selection of Blu-ray Disc products, including home video decks, PC drives, PC's line-
fitted with Blu-ray Disc drives and blank media, to be available when the format is
launched in the various regions in the world.

2.2 Lifespan

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The Blu-ray Disc format is designed to stay relevant for at least10 to 15 years.
It's high storage capacity of 25 to 50 GB allows for the best possible High Definition
video quality and satisfies even the most demanding data storage needs. As we have
seen with DVD in the past, most premium titles require two discs. This is why Blu-
ray Disc incorporates the additional storage space that High Definition feature of the
data, including bonus material, requires in the new standard. Formats with a lesser
capacity are only suitable as interim solutions, requiring them to be replaced much
sooner than a format that takes tomorrow's data storage needs into account from day
one. This will of course require multiple investments in production equipment, and
will lead to increased consumer confusion.

2.3 Content Protection

Blu-ray Disc provides some of the strongest copy protection schemes ever
developed for any consumer format. It makes Blu-ray Disc the best choice for any
content publisher wanting assurance that their valuable assets are protected from
piracy. Based on feedback from the content industry and taking a quefrom the lessons
learned by other formats, the Blu-ray Disc format incorporates a robust copy
protection mechanism, which not only relies on implementation at the playback
device, but which also includes precautions at replicator level, which will be strictly
controlled. Unlike the voluntary implementation of CSS protection in DVD, the copy
protection mechanism for Blu-ray Disc is mandatory and will be governed by strict
licensing procedures.

2.4 Cost
Blu-ray Disc is developed to offer the best long-term profitability model for
content providers. Although it might require a nominal investment in advance, it
provides greater and longer-term profit potential. This is because the format is
designed to last for a period of at least 10 to 15 years. Due to its enormous storage
capacity short-term replacement of the technology is unnecessary, unlike other format
proposals that might require less investment in advance, but higher investments in the
long term due to the replacement of the technology when it becomes outdated. At
comparable volumes, Blu-ray Disc production costs are within 10% of DVD
production costs, although a Blu-ray Disc offers 5 to 10 times the capacity. It is by far

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the cheapest format measured in cost per GB. Since Blu-ray Disc requires less slots in
a replication line compared to other formats, it will bring costs on par with DVD, or
even cheaper, much sooner. Production facilities can produce many more Blu-ray
Discs in the same time period as DVDs. Also, contrary to some rumors circulating,
Blu-ray Discs do not require cartridges for any of the format variations (BD ROM,
BD RE, and BD R).

2.5 Capacity
The Blu-ray Disc format offers the highest capacity of any consumer media
format to date, also greatly surpassing the capacity of other format proposals. Blu-ray
Disc's huge capacity allows not only for the highest quality High Definition video to
be recorded at large bit rates (thereby eliminating the need for tight compression that
could affect picture quality), it also opens up the doors to new and existing
applications. Think of extra sessions on a disc that could be unlocked when a user's
Blu-ray Disc player connects to the Internet to validate authorization. Or what about
bonus material and special features that will eventually also be recorded in High
Definition quality? With Blu-ray Disc's large capacity, these extra's can be included in
high quality on the same disc, so there is no need for separate bonus discs to
accompany the movie title. Only Blu-ray Disc will be able to offer these value added
options.

2.6 Robustness of Disc

As the result of recent breakthroughs in the development of hard coating for
Blu-ray Disc, the discs offer much stronger resistance to scratches and fingerprints
than other existing and proposed formats. Hard coated Blu-ray Discs do not require a
cartridge and can be used as a bare disc, similar to DVD and CD. This avoids extra
production costs, and allows for small form factor applications, such as the
implementation of Blu-ray Disc drives in a notebook computer. The hard coating
technology is used for BD ROM discs, giving them the same bare disc look and feel
consumers know from DVD, and it can be applied to rewritable and recordable Blu-
ray Discs as well.

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CHAPTER 3
PHYSICAL FORMAT

The subsequent paragraphs describe the basic philosophy for the physical
format of the Blu-ray Disc system, the method for determining principal specification
values, and the specific technologies used.

3.1 Basic Parameters

The Blu-ray Disc system has the following three basic parameters:
Laser wavelength: 405 nm
Objective-lens numerical aperture (NA): 0.85
Cover thickness: 0.1 mm

In developing a next-generation optical disc system beyond the CD and DVD

systems, researchers put the highest importance to the recording capacity. In principle,
the recording capacity of an optical disc is determined by the spot size, which is
proportional to the light-source wavelength and inversely proportional to the
numerical aperture (NA) of objective lens. The capacity, which is in inverse
proportion to the square of spot size, can be expressed as follows:

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2
Capacity (NA / )

That is, it is possible to increase the recording capacity by decreasing the light-
source wavelength and increasing the NA. As the light source of Blu-ray Disc,
therefore, we have adopted GaN laser diode (GaN LD), which provides the shortest
wavelength of all laser diodes, and have set the laser wavelength at 405 nm, taking
into account the resistance of plastic material used in the disc. An objective lens has a
theoretical upper limit to its NA. Unless near-field light is used, the upper NA limit is
somewhere little less than 1.0. It would be practically possible to test-manufacture
0.95-NA objective lens by using two-element lens, which is described later. However,
we determined to use 0.85-NA lens, considering the realistic working distance and a
production margin.
Fig-3.1 below is a graph showing the relation among wavelength, NA, and
capacity. The capacity of DVD with 650 nm wavelength and 0.6 NA can be increased
2.5 times by decreasing the wavelength to 405 nm, and can be doubled by increasing
the NA to 0.85. In all, the capacity can be increased five times. That is, Blu-ray Disc
(BD) provides an approximately 25 GB recording capacity, compared to 4.7 GB of
DVD.

Fig 3.1-CAPACITY VS WAVELENGTH AND NA

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Employing a laser with the shortest possible wavelength and lens with the
highest possible NA, as described above, Blu-ray Disc has a sufficiently high
recording capacity and long lifetime, and is expected as a promising next-generation
optical disc format.

3.2 Disc Structure (Dual Layer)

Fig 3.2- THE STRUCTURE OF DUAL LAYER DISC

Here, the L0 plane sandwiched around a 25 µm thick buffer layer defines L1,
and the thickness of the cover layer L1 is around 75 µm (Fig-3.2). This policy is still
unchanged today, and the basic thickness of a Blu-ray layer is 100 µm, a thickness
that will be kept if multi-layer is adopted. Since Blu-ray employs different
wavelengths, NA values, and cover layer thicknesses from CDs and DVDs, it will be

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necessary to design and develop a compatible pickup for a system interchangeable

with CDs and DVDs for recording and playing back. This is the same problem
encountered for reading and writing CDs when a recording/playing back device for
DVDs was planned. Some successful studies have already been released.

3.3 Track Format

The track format of Blu-ray Disc is groove recording, i.e., recording data only
on groove tracks. For the groove recording method, lands are sandwiched between
adjacent grooves to block heat transfer between the grooves, preventing signal quality
deterioration due to the influence of data recording in adjacent groove tracks with a
narrow track pitch. The track pitch between grooves in Blu-ray Disc is 0.32 µm.

Fig 3.3-GROOVE RECORDING

Groove Format: Physical structure of a Blu-ray disc is a groove recording as shown in

the Fig-3.3.

There were many opinions and study results concerning this, and it would be
one of reasons why several recording formats were defined for DVDs. Fortunately, all
the of the companies which dealt with the three DVD recording systems have joined

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the Blu-ray development group; all the studies have been reexamined and one
physical format has been established. Furthermore, it was quite helpful that the most
comprehensive erasable system was introduced first, unlike the cases for the CD and
DVD in which the ROM came first and the other systems had to be adapted to it. It
was natural that the master design of blue-ray was made compatible for both home-
use devices and computer peripheral devices. Therefore, the structure of the data unit
arrangement was made, leaving a gap between blocks as with DVD-RAM. In
addition, as in the past, to include ROM and R media into the vision, the groove
recording system was employed instead of land/groove recording in order to respond
to these three kinds of recording media. This idea had also been adopted for CD-R,
RW, DVD-RW, and +RW systems. One of reasons why discs of different track pitch
coexist in the family is to prevent losing the freedom of the optical pickup design. At
first, the mastering seemed to be extremely difficult for a 0.32 µm track pitch; the
groove itself must be formed with about a half the precision of 0.32 µm. Besides,
since it would be necessary in the future to make a ROM type disc whose pit must be
formed by embossing, intensive developments have been carried out. As a result,
mastering by electron beam (EB) was enabled first, and subsequently mastering by
deep UV was enabled in the 25 GB class of Blu-ray. Furthermore, the mastering
technology for Blu-ray using a beam with a wavelength of 400 nm was even
developed, removing all obstacles against groove recording. A stamping technology
for this density has already been established.

Furthermore, taking a high NA value such as 0.85 into account, the on-groove
method was selected instead of in-groove. Although it is not easy to explain this in a
scalar field, on-grove was selected based on simulation results shown in the figure and
actual experiments.

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CHAPTER 4
WORKING OF BLU-RAY DISC

Discs store digitally encoded video and audio information in pits – spiral
grooves that run from the center of the disc to its edges. A laser reads the other side
of these pits – the bumps – to play the movie or program that is stored on the DVD.
The more data that is contained on a disc, the smaller and more closely packed the
pits must be. The smaller the pits (and therefore the bumps), the more precise the
reading laser must be.

Unlike current DVDs, which use a red laser to read and write data, Blu-ray
uses a blue laser (which is where the format gets its name). A blue laser has a shorter
wavelength (405 nanometers) than a red laser (650 nanometers). The smaller beam
focuses more precisely, enabling it to read information recorded in pits that are only
0.15 microns (µm) (1 micron = 10-6 meters) long – this is more than twice as small as
the pits on a DVD. Plus, Blu-ray has reduced the track pitch from 0.74 microns to
0.32 microns (Fig-4.1). The smaller pits, smaller beam and shorter track pitch
together enable a single-layer Blu-ray disc to hold more than 25 GB of information –
about five times the amount of information that can be stored on a DVD.

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Each
Blu-ray disc is
about the same
thickness (1.2

Fig 4.1-DVD VS BLU-RAY CONSTRUCTION

millimeters) as a DVD. But the two types of discs store data differently. In a DVD,
the data is sandwiched between two polycarbonate layers, each 0.6-mm thick. Having
a polycarbonate layer on top of the data can cause a problem called birefringence, in
which the substrate layer refracts the laser light into two separate beams. If the beam
is split too widely, the disc cannot be read. Also, if the DVD surface is not exactly
flat, and is therefore not exactly perpendicular to the beam, it can lead to a problem
known as disc tilt, in which the laser beam is distorted. All of these issues lead to a
very involved manufacturing process

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CHAPTER 5
COMPARISON WITH OTHER DISCS

5.1 Blu-ray Disc and DVD

Just as DVD meant a 5 to 10 times increase in storage capacity compared to
CD, Blu-ray Disc will increase DVD capacity by 5 to 10 times. This is due, among
other reasons, to the usage of a blue instead of a red laser and improved lens
specifications, allowing for a much smaller focus laser beam which enables the
recording of much smaller and higher density pits on the disc (Fig-5.1).

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Fig 5.1-COMPARISION WITH OTHER DISCS

Due to the fact that the data layer on a Blu-ray Disc is placed much "closer" to
the laser lens than in DVD (or even the HD-DVD proposal), there is less distortion
resulting in significantly improved tolerances. Hence, more precision and ultra high
storage densities are made possible.

As a result of Blu-ray Disc being manufactured as a single substrate disc

comparable to CD, but unlike DVD (and the HD-DVD proposal), the manufacturing
process does not involve the bonding of two substrates, resulting in less production
material, a shorter production time and hence lower production costs per disc.

Blu-ray Disc has the same physical characteristics as DVD and CD, and like
its predecessors it also does not require a cartridge. This makes it possible to create
Blu-ray Disc products that are backwards compatible with CD and DVD, allowing for
a seamless transition to the new technology. Likewise, the technology is perfectly
suitable for integration in small form factor equipment, like notebook computers.

Fig 5.2-BLU-RAY VS DVD CAPACITY

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Single layer DVD can store data up to 4.7 GB whereas a single layer Blu-ray
disc can store data up to 27 GB which is 5 times more than DVD.A double layer Blu-
ray disc can store data up to 54 GB (Fig-5.3).

5.2 Blu-ray Disc and HD-DVD

The HD-DVD format, originally called AOD or Advanced Optical Disc, is
based on much of today's DVD principles and as a result, suffers from many of its
limitations. The format does not provide as big of a technological step as Blu-ray
Disc. For example, its pre-recorded capacities are only 15 GB for a single layer disc,
or 30 GB for a double layer disc. Blu-ray Disc provides 67% more capacity per layer
at 25 GB for a single layer and 50GB for a double layer disc.

Although the HD-DVD format claims it keeps initial investments for disc
replicators and media manufacturers as low as possible, they still need to make
substantial investments in modifying their production equipment to create HD-DVDs.
But what's more important is that HD-DVD can be seen as just a transition
technology, with a capacity not sufficient for the long term. It might not offer enough
space to hold a High Definition feature along with bonus material in HD quality and
additional material that can be revealed upon authorization via a network. When two
discs are needed, this will degrade the so-called cost benefit substantially. It is even
possible that the HD-DVD specification will be followed up by a renewed version of
the technology within a few years, requiring media manufacturers to upgrade their
existing production lines again, and consumers to replace their existing
playback/recording equipment. On the other hand, the Blu-ray Disc format was
designed to be a viable technology for a period of at least 10 to 15 years.

Also on the application layer, the HD-DVD format incorporates many

compromises. As the capacity is not likely to be sufficient to encode a full-length
feature plus additional bonus materials using the MPEG-2 format, different and
stronger encoding formats need to be used. Although Blu-ray Disc offers these
advanced codecs as well, the disc has such high capacity that publishers can still use
the MPEG-2 encoding format at bit rates up to 54 Mbit/sec. As MPEG-2 is the de-
facto standard used in almost any industry involved in digital video (DVD, HDTV,
digital broadcast), many authoring solutions are available. Chances are high that a full

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line MPEG-2 encoding suite is already available, which can be used with no or minor
adaptations to encode High Definition content for Blu-ray Disc.

But perhaps the most important factor for the success of Blu-ray Disc is its
overwhelming industry-wide support. Almost all consumer electronics companies in
the world (combined market share of about 90%) and the world's two largest
computer companies support the Blu-ray Disc format. This ensures a large selection
of Blu-ray Disc players, recorders, PC drives, Blu-ray Disc equipped PCs and blank
media will become available. A competing format will not have the manufacturing
power to penetrate the market in a level even approaching that of Blu-ray Disc.

CHAPTER 6
APPLICATIONS

The Blu-ray Disc format was designed to offer the best performance and
features for a wide variety of applications. High Definition video distribution is one of
the key features of Blu-ray Disc, but the format's versatile design and top-of-the-line
specifications mean that it is suitable for a full range of other purposes as well.

6.1 High Definition Television Recording

High Definition broadcasting is vastly expanding in the US and Asia.
Consumers are increasingly making the switch to HDTV sets to enjoy the best
possible television experience. The Blu-ray Disc format offers consumers the ability
to record their High Definition television broadcasts in their original quality for the
first time, preserving the pure picture and audio level as offered by the broadcaster.
As such it will become the next level in home entertainment, offering an unsurpassed
user experience. And since the Blu-ray Disc format incorporates the strongest copy
protection algorithms of any format or proposal to date, the format allows for
recording of digital broadcasts while meeting the content protection demands of the
broadcast industry.

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6.2 High Definition Video Distribution

Due to its enormous data capacity of 25 to 50 GB per (single sided) disc, the
Blu-ray Disc format can store High Definition video in the highest possible quality.
Because of the huge capacity of the disc, there is no need to compromise on picture
quality. Depending on the encoding method, there is room for more than seven hours
of the highest HD quality video. There is even room for additional content such as
special features and other bonus material to accompany the High Definition movie.
Furthermore, the Blu-ray Disc movie format greatly expands on traditional DVD
capabilities, by incorporating many new interactive features allowing content
providers to offer an even more incredible experience to consumers. An Internet-
connection may even be used to unlock additional material that is stored on the disc,
as there is enough room on the disc to include premium material as well.

6.3 High Definition Camcorder Archiving

As the market penetration of High Definition TV sets continues to grow, so
does the demand of consumers to create their own HD recordings. With the advent of
the first HD camcorders, consumers can now for the first time record their own home
movies in a quality level unlike any before. As these camcorders are tape-based,
consumers cannot benefit from the convenience and direct access features they are
used to from the DVD players and recorders. Now, the Blu-ray Disc format, with its
unprecedented storage capacity, allows for the HD video recorded with an HD
camcorder to be converted and recorded on a Blu-ray Disc. When the HD content is
stored on a Blu-ray Disc, it can be randomly accessed in a way comparable to DVD.
Furthermore, the disc can be safely stored for many years, without the risk of tape
wears.

6.4 Mass Data Storage

In its day, CD-R/RW meant a huge increase in storage capacity compared to
traditional storage media with its 650 MB. Then DVD surpassed this amount by
offering 4.7 to 8.5 GB of storage, an impressive 5 to 10 times increase. Now
consumers demand an even bigger storage capacity. The growing number of
broadband connections allowing consumers to download vast amounts of data, as well
as the ever increasing audio, video and photo capabilities of personal computers have
lead to yet another level in data storage requirements. In addition, commercial storage

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requirements are growing exponentially due to the proliferation of e-mail and the
migration to paperless processes. The Blu-ray Disc format again offers 5 to 10 times
as much capacity as traditional DVD resulting in 25 to 50 GB of data to be stored on a
single rewritable or recordable disc. As Blu-ray Disc uses the same form factor as CD
and DVD, this allows for Blu-ray Disc drives that can still read and write to CD and
DVD media as well.

GLOSSARY
BD R
Blu-ray Disc Recordable. A BD R disc can be recorded once, and cannot be
accidentally erased. BD R is the ideal format for archiving valuable data or storing
and distributing video material.

BD RE
Blu-ray Disc Rewritable. A BD RE disc can be recorded over and over again.
It offers extensive editing functionality on the disc. BD RE is the ideal format for
making sequential backups, or recording video for time shifting purposes.

BD ROM
Blu-ray Disc Read Only Memory. A BD ROM disc contains pre-recorded
data. Although a BD ROM may contain any form of data, most BD ROM discs will
contain movies in High Definition format, for playback on Blu-ray Disc players.

CD
Compact Disc. First generation optical media, introduced in the early 1980s. A
CD contains up to 700 MB of data. Is mainly used for audio and for data storage
applications that do not require much room. Most Blu-ray Disc products will be
compatible with CDs.

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DVD
Digital Versatile Disc. Second-generation optical media, introduced in the mid
1990s. A DVD contains up to 8.5 GB of data. Is mainly used for standard definition
video and data storage applications that require average room. Most Blu-ray Disc
products will be compatible with DVDs.

Gigabyte (GB)
A gigabyte equals about 1,000 megabytes (MB). A Blu-ray Disc capable of
recording 50 GB therefore stores about 50,000 megabytes.

HDTV
High Definition Television. Generic term used for TV technology producing
images in a much higher quality picture than standard definition TVs. An HDTV set
displays 720 up to 1,080 visible lines. Blu-ray Discs usually contain HD video.

Layer
In Blu-ray Disc, data is recorded on a single side of the disc. However, a disc
can store two data layers, both at the same side. The read-out or recording laser of the
Blu-ray Disc device will first read from or record to one layer, and then re-focuses on
the second layer. All this is done automatically without any user interference. A
double layer Blu-ray Disc can store up to 50 GB of data.

SDTV
Standard Definition Television. Generic term used for conventional television
sets, based on the NTSC or PAL standards. SD television consists of 480 to 570
visible lines.

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CONCLUSION

In 1997, a new technology emerged that brought digital sound and video into
homes all over the world. It was called DVD, and it revolutionized the movie
industry.

The industry is set for yet another revolution with the introduction of Blu-ray
Discs (BD). With their high storage capacity, Blu-ray discs can hold and playback
large quantities of high-definition video and audio, as well as photos, data and other
digital content. A current, single-sided, standard DVD can hold 4.7 GB information.
That's about the size of an average two-hour, standard-definition movie with a few
extra features. But a high-definition movie, which has a much clearer image, takes up
about five times more bandwidth and therefore requires a disc with about five times
more storage. As TV sets and movie studios make the move to high definition,
consumers are going to need playback systems with a lot more storage capacity, and
the blu-ray discs promise to provide precisely the same.

Therefore I would like to conclude that the blu-ray discs are next-generation
discs, and is expected to be released worldwide this year. It is already existent in the
markets of Japan. Though the cost factor may affect its initial market, but I am sure as
the technology becomes more popular and familiar, its cost will also drop, eventually.

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REFERENCES

1. http://www.blu-ray.com
2. http://www.blu-raydisc.com/en.html
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blueray
4. http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/blu-ray.html

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