GE Shows Off 500-GB Micro-Holographic Disc
General Electric announced that it's demonstrated a micro-holographic storage disc that can hold 500 gigabytes.
April 27, 2009 | by Arlen Schweiger
So do you want to hold your entire uncompressed music library and maybe a bunch of movies on a clunky portable hard drive or one CD-size disc?
General Electric is pushing the disc on us. Well, maybe not in the marketplace quite today, so we’ll stick with those hard drives (and no, of course they’re not all clunky). But the company did announce that it’s successfully demonstrated its micro-holographic storage on a disc.
And the storage capacity of that disc? Try 500 gigabytes, or the equivalent of 20 single-layer 25-GB Blu-ray discs. Or the equivalent of massive quantities of CDs, or common external/internal hard drives or NAS drives these days.
“GE’s breakthrough is a huge step toward bringing our next generation holographic storage technology to the everyday consumer,” said Brian Lawrence, who heads GE’s Holographic Storage program. “Because GE’s micro-holographic discs could essentially be read and played using similar optics to those found in standard Blu-ray players, our technology will pave the way for cost-effective, robust and reliable holographic drives that could be in every home. The day when you can store your entire high definition movie collection on one disc and support high resolution formats like 3-D television is closer than you think.”
General Electric says it’s been working on holographic storage for six years, so we’re guessing this is the tip of the iceberg more so than just a crowning demonstration. The company says this paves the way for the 1-terabyte disc.
Sweet, we’re there. We’ll take a few of those discs just to be on the safe side, back up all of our physical discs and ditch the hundreds lining our media shelves. Just let us know when we’ll also have devices that can play and make it convenient to scroll through all the data on micro-holographic discs, too.
I heard about this development years ago, so I've been waiting for this little beauty to come through. It's new technology, but its so familiar-looking it can be easily adapted into the marketplace. Don'cha just love technology?
Stuart: The only problem is, I'm losing track of which universe I'm in.
You kinda look like Jesus. With a lightsaber.- Peregrin Toker
I wonder how much of the article is based on reality, and how much is based on the author's assumptions. Are the disks writable with home equipment? Are they robust enough to be treated like CDs and DVDs, or do they need the delicate treatment that keeps hard drives (which are, after all, basically CD-sized data-storage disks...) locked up in clunky sealed units? Still, it's a cool development. Thanks for the link.
Feil wrote:I wonder how much of the article is based on reality, and how much is based on the author's assumptions. Are the disks writable with home equipment? Are they robust enough to be treated like CDs and DVDs, or do they need the delicate treatment that keeps hard drives (which are, after all, basically CD-sized data-storage disks...) locked up in clunky sealed units? Still, it's a cool development. Thanks for the link.
As I understand it from other articles I've read, it functions exactly like a CD except the information is stored on multiple layers within the disc, all of which are accessible depending on the angle at which the laser hits the surface. So yes, they would be rewriteable.
Stuart: The only problem is, I'm losing track of which universe I'm in.
You kinda look like Jesus. With a lightsaber.- Peregrin Toker
The layering problem's always been a big one for (re)writable optical discs, though - we're still only on single layer BD-Rs, and even double layer DVD-R(W)s haven't seen much progress from a production or pricing in the past five years or so.
Rewritable disks have never been a serious concern of mine. If they can be written to once, that's plenty good enough for me.
And yes, I love technology.
"Now let us be clear, my friends. The fruits of our science that you receive and the many millions of benefits that justify them, are a gift. Be grateful. Or be silent." -Modified Quote
From what I can recall about holographic storage technology, it's not a matter of storing on multiple layers, but storing the bits at different positions defined by the intersection of the lasers,thus making it more of a true 3d system rather than the layered 2d system currently used in dual-layer discs.
As an aside, I don't really see it replacing Blu-Ray discs all that quickly, since Blu-rays provide a nice size for storage of single movies or trilogies for sale, whereas with the 'Holodiscs' (feel free to come up with a different term), putting a movie on it would probably waste most of the space. Maybe movie collections or complete multi-season (All of BSG, anybody?) shows on a single holodisc, or the entire LOTR extended edition plus special features.
As an aside, I don't really see it replacing Blu-Ray discs all that quickly, since Blu-rays provide a nice size for storage of single movies or trilogies for sale, whereas with the 'Holodiscs' (feel free to come up with a different term), putting a movie on it would probably waste most of the space.
By the time the costs of this technology are down to mass consumption levels (e.g. 5 years time) Quad-HD and 3D displays might also be ready for mass launch. Combining those multiplies your storage requirements by a factor of 8 (and we can always use anything left over to improve the compression quality). I am unconvinced that digital downloading will make Blu-ray the last generation of physical distribution. Most US users have internet connections capped at around one Blu-ray disc of data per month. That situation is improving relatively slowly; in five years time it may be practical for most consumers to stream/download all their 1080p movies, but not the new 'super HD' content. I expect those products will be pushed hard to keep profit margins high and the traditional physical sales channels open, regardless of how beneficial another doubling of DPI and 3D display capability really is.
Starglider wrote:Most US users have internet connections capped at around one Blu-ray disc of data per month. That situation is improving relatively slowly; in five years time it may be practical for most consumers to stream/download all their 1080p movies, but not the new 'super HD' content.
Most US internet subscribers have a monthly download cap of 50GB/month? How do you figure? Comcast's cap is 200 (or was that 250?) GB a month, Time-Warner just backed off of their proposed caps once a Senator started huffing and puffing, and Verizon has no caps at all. I don't think Qwest does either.
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