Optware's 1TB Holographic Versatile Disc
Need we even resort to hyperbole to describe Optware's new Holographic Versatile Disc, which is the same size and shape as a regular DVD but uses holograms to potentially store as much as one terabyte of data? Nah, didn't think so.
Filed under: Home Entertainment
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
dvd-software @ Dec 19th 2005 12:04AM
What kind of disk drive can read it?
JAT @ Dec 19th 2005 12:04AM
According to the linked list of PR documents, it's read by a blue laser from Sony. Obviously, like everything, it will require new hardware.
needalife @ Dec 19th 2005 12:04AM
A terabyte?? That's out of this world. Does anyone know when this will be released, or an estimated price?
Ivan Yagolnikov @ Dec 19th 2005 12:04AM
Just go to this page --http://www.computerworld.com/hardwaretopics/storage/story/0,10801,95446,00.html
Basically, commercial enterprise versions are planned for 2006 ($20,000 for players, $100/disk), and consumer versions are planned for 2007 @ $2,700 a pop. About same as Blu-Ray nowadays.
razorweb @ Dec 19th 2005 12:04AM
Holographic recording technology records data on discs in the form of laser interference fringes, enabling existing discs the same size as today's DVDs to store more than one terabyte of data (200 times the capacity of a single layer DVD), with a transfer rate of over one gigabit per second (40 times the speed of DVD). This approach is rapidly gaining attention as a high-capacity, high-speed data storage technology for the age of broadband.
Looks like compression or some fancy laser, not actual increased storage capacity, to me.
Jeff @ Dec 19th 2005 12:04AM
It's increased storage capacity. This is really not very much like a conventional CD / DVD at all, in terms of how the data is stored and read.
Mark @ Dec 19th 2005 12:04AM
I would imagine they store the data in 1s and 0s
Jose @ Dec 19th 2005 12:04AM
Looks like we are getting to the point where storage will not be an issue anymore. What will we be able to do with all of this extra storage space?
I can understand that this will come in handy for digital video editors.
Looks like we have been pushing for this kind of technology for a while now and soon we will have then what?
What other practical uses will this form of storage be used for?
echs @ Dec 19th 2005 12:04AM
> What other practical uses will this form of storage be used for?
just to get rid of lossy compression schemes.
i like mpeg(1-2-4) in terms of compression 'value' but i dislike noisy artifacts and quantization.
also jpeg seems to loose colors and image 'depth', ok we have png but not everyone is using it..
just my 2c
Bob @ Dec 19th 2005 12:04AM
Seems huge, but then again so did 5GB disc 5 yrs ago, soon it will be the standard and you'll be able to buy a disc in a car boot sale for a fiver with 500 films on it or 100,000 audio tracks, that'll pretty well end music downloads won't it, legal and non-legal.
Tim @ Dec 19th 2005 12:04AM
well here now it seems as if this is the perfect answer to my prayers. I work for a fairly large company and well we have raid arrays up the wazoo and tape backups and all kinds of redundancy systems. I personally despise tape. It's slow and fragile and restoring from it takes forever and a day. This however seems like an answer to all that we've been looking for. What can it be used for? Replacing old and outdated backup systems that can't keep up with the large hdd sizes we have now.
Sergio @ Dec 19th 2005 12:04AM
It does not use actually a compression schemme but the holograms dots are self ecoded for very high information level, in a thick photopolymer medium, probably made from Aprillis material.
Holograms are recorded in a thin volume photopolymer material with a green laser, adjusted with a red one, same DVD track times for 1TB!
Michael @ Dec 19th 2005 12:04AM
Here's a post about it on SlashDot.
(url on my link on this post)
destructor @ Dec 19th 2005 12:04AM
Just imagine the uses of this technology...
Most consumers would never be able to fill a terabyte disc... so hopefully they will design mini-discs with like 100 gigs of storage.
Or heck... they could replace harddrives with these things pretty easily. Computers would be able to get smaller and more compact if they don't have to have a bunch of hardrives in them and small holigram readers.
Next they will b designing even better storage devices... maybe something like a crystal that files are carved into and then depending on the angle they are read from the reader reads different files.
destructor @ Dec 19th 2005 12:04AM
Just imagine the uses of this technology...
Most consumers would never be able to fill a terabyte disc... so hopefully they will design mini-discs with like 100 gigs of storage.
Or heck... they could replace harddrives with these things pretty easily. Computers would be able to get smaller and more compact if they don't have to have a bunch of hardrives in them and small holigram readers.
Next they will b designing even better storage devices... maybe something like a crystal that files are carved into and then depending on the angle they are read from the reader reads different files.
Onimoto @ Dec 19th 2005 12:04AM
Damn...now only if i could get my hands on that kinda storage?