How about a disk that stores 300GB and can read and wrote to 10 times fasters than normal DVD's. Uses light to wirte and read miliions of data bits in parallel. And supposedly this new technique could store up to 1.6Tb with access of 120Mbs. And is supposed to go on sell next year.
A computer disc about the size of a DVD that can hold 60 times more data is set to go on sale in 2006. The disc stores information through the interference of light – a technique known as holographic memory.
The discs, developed by InPhase Technologies, based in Colorado, US, hold 300 gigabytes of data and can be used to read and write data 10 times faster than a normal DVD. The company, along with Japanese partner Hitachi Maxell announced earlier in November that they would start selling the discs and compatible drives from the end of 2006.
"Unlike other technologies, that record one data bit at a time, holography allows a million bits of data to be written and read in parallel with a single flash of light," says Liz Murphy, of InPhase Technologies. "This enables transfer rates significantly higher than current optical storage devices."
The discs, at 13 centimetres across, are a little wider than conventional DVDs, and slightly thicker. Normal DVDs record data by measuring microscopic ridges on the surface of a spinning disc. Two competing successors to the DVD format – Blu-ray and HD-DVD – use the same technique but exploit shorter wavelengths of light to cram more information onto a surface.
Beam-splitter
Holographic memory, by contrast, stores information in a light-sensitive crystal material using the interference of laser light. The process involves splitting a single light beam into two and then passing one through a semi-transparent material. This is a grid that acts like a filter, changing different parts of the beam to encode bits of information.
The altered beam and the reference beam are then recombined in the light-sensitive material and their pattern of interference provides a record of the encoded information. Information can be recorded and retrieved so rapidly because many bits of data can be recorded and read in parallel.
InPhase says the technique could theoretically be used to store up to 1.6 terabytes of data on the same size of disc and to read data at 120 megabits per second. This is 340 times the capacity of an ordinary DVD and 20 times the data rate.
High-speed streaming
Although holographic memory was first suggested in 1963, it has failed to find commercial success so far. However, Hans Coufal, an expert in the technology at IBM's Almaden Laboratory in California, says the holographic memory could challenge formats such as Blu-ray and HD-DVD.
As well as offering greater storage, Coufal says the main benefit is speed of data access. The discs developed so far by InPhase can already stream a movie recorded in high definition television (HDTV) format.
However, Coufal notes that the technology must also stand up to everyday use. "It is an open race right now," he told New Scientist. "But you have to convince the customer that it is going to be reliable."
Yes, but when are we going to get holographic Orion slave girls?
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Dennis Toy wrote:do we REALLY need 1.2 TB (1024 GB ) of storage memory in our PC's
Considering that 400-500GB harddrives are readily available these days, and people often have more than one HD in their computers, I'd say we need it. As the old saying goes, "data always expands to fill its container". Another 10-15 years and we'll probably be at the petabyle level.
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Say, do you want it to be a threesome with your wife? Or a foursome with your wife and sister-in-law? I'm up for either.
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