STORAGE NEWS: Holographic DVD to Hold 1.6 Terabytes

[TechZ]

Move over HD DVD and Blu-ray. Bell Labs spin-off InPhase Technologies and Hitachi Maxell are currently working on a computer disc about the size of a DVD that could hold up to sixty times the data. The companies hope to have the disc and compatible drives on the market by the end of next year.

The new discs will use a technology known as holographic memory. Data is stored on a crystal material that is sensitive to light. In order to read and write data, a light beam is split in two and one is passed through semi-transparent material. This material alters the beam to encode data.

Full story: BetaNews

[confus-ed]

340 times the capacity and 20 times the data rate of traditional DVDs ..launch with a capacity of 300GB...up to 1.6 terabytes of data read at 160 megabits per second ..

I'm sold on that idea for sure.

& on those numbers, its also move over current IDE/sata technology !

See the video ! (wmv)

... I always thought that 'loose' cd's (& so also dvd's) were strange & a bit of an odd idea, when I first saw them, as once upon a time optical disks came in cartridges, & I see they do again, no doubt so you can track the laser better for all that extra density of data it has & it'll stop scratching etc - much better

I want me one of these .. I couldn't find a proposed price ? & if they ain't got a date for one yet, I want a name of a good broker who can buy me some shares in 'em .. but this'll sell well in the home market - imagine add say mpeg 4 reading & recording to a standalone unit ? That's a whole hell of a lot of storage !