InPhase Technologies of Colorado says that they will be ready to market a storage disc next year that will hold three hundred gigabytes of
information. The disc is slightly wider than a DVD, but instead of allowing for one bit of information to be recorded at a time, millions of bits can
be written and read simultaneously. Although the holographic technology was first suggested as a medium for storage in 1963, this is the first time
such has become viable. The final test will be the willingness of the market to embrace the new technology.
www.theinquirer.net
A FIRM which makes a disc that can hold 60 times more data than a DVD said it is ready to release the product next year.
InPhase Technologies, based in Colorado, has developed a commercially viable version of a holographic disc which can hold 300 gigabytes of data and
can be used to read and write data 10 times faster than a normal DVD.
InPhase Technologies spokesperson Liz Murphy said that 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. This enables transfer rates significantly higher than current optical storage
device.
The discs, are 13 centimetres across and a little wider than normal DVDs. They store data in a light-sensitive crystal material using the interference
of laser light. A single light beam is split and passed through a semi-transparent material. This acts like a filter, changing different parts of the
beam to encode bits of information.
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The envelope of technology seems to know no boundaries. The ability for an optical disc roughly the size of a CD/DVD to hold such a huge amount of
data would certainly be welcomed by those who have lots of data to back up, but one has to wonder whether there is a market for so much data on a
single disc for movies, music and the like. Of course, the storage size is not the only advantage. The ability to read such large amounts of data so
quickly could revolutionize the video game industry.
Related News Links:
www.newscientist.com
www.optware.co.jp
www.theregister.co.uk
www.theregister.co.uk
Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
Holographic Storage Due late 2006
[edit on 2005/12/4 by GradyPhilpott]