How to cram three terabytes onto a CD-R

Okay, so there's no magic product (yet) that will literally burn three terabytes onto a writeable CD, but Harvard researchers are certainly getting closer to making it happen. The group has developed an "optical nano antenna" that's built onto an inexpensive, off-the-shelf antenna in order to bypass that pesky diffraction limit that prevents current lasers from focusing light onto a smaller spot than half its native wavelength. By utilizing two gold "nano rods" separated by a 30 nanometer gap, they have devised a method for a laser sporting an 830 nanometer wavelength to focus its beam onto a 40 nanometer area, allowing for mind boggling amounts of data to be written to an optical disc. While the integrity of the burn is more than sketchy using such a high resolution beam, the team of engineers are hard at work trying to improve and perfect the space-saving process. Until then, we suppose we're still stuck paying an arm and a leg (or two) for those spacious, burnable Blu-ray / HD DVD discs.

[Thanks, Adam]

[OtakuCODE @ Sep 27th 2006 3:47PM]

At this point in the game, it is abundantly clear that no technology company will allow a leap in storage size to occur. We will never again be able to easily back up our hard drives onto portable, fast, and easy-to-store affordable media. As video resolution increases, we tighten our compression ratios rather than pushing for uncompressed video. People are even willing to put up with technologies like HD-DVD which don't even sport enough storage space for their designed purpose (HD movies). And over in the corner sits HVD which died from lack of interest, with 300GB on a single later disc.

[tekdroid @ Sep 27th 2006 4:11PM]

OtakuCODE,
According to Wikipedia, HVD is still in the research phase, not so much a 'lack of interest' thing, but mor of a 'picking up steam behind the scenes' thing:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holographic_Versatile_Disc

It seems like it will be too expensive for my tastes anyway. Aimed at corporate price points more than Average Joes, I think (even for the long-term). That said, I think that we will see huge storage increases in the not-too-distant. In fact, I think both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray will also be enhanced in future... but will never gain any serious traction in a new world with so many other (DRMless) storage choices.

Personally, I welcome any new computer (or CE) storage formats as long as they are very robust and rewritable (!) and relatively inexpensive. Standard or not, we need higher-capacity removable storage. A 100GB $10 removable disc and $200 drives would be a good start, IMO.

[Alex @ Sep 27th 2006 4:09PM]

Holy crap, we'll be able to burn 3 terabytes onto a regular CD-R?? (With a special burner drive I assume)

That'd be sweet.

[Robert @ Sep 27th 2006 4:30PM]

meet the new MP3 Player dust it off from your attic, that's right your cd player with a whooping 3 TB of space... APPLE Ipod = size of text file lol

[HughJass @ Sep 27th 2006 4:46PM]

Robert, I have no idea what you just said. But anyway a normal cd-rom will not be able to read these new discs. You'll need a special burner and a special reader. That old cd player in your attic won't work.

[Batman @ Sep 27th 2006 6:35PM]

Nano Rod? They stole that from me, My girlfriend has been calling me that for years!

[Daniel Downing @ Sep 27th 2006 6:39PM]

I wonder if more could be crammed onto a HD-DVD or Blu ray disc.

[tristanfey @ Sep 27th 2006 7:45PM]

No. This method is to increase the size limitations of an "optical disc". Blu-Ray and HD-DVD are optical discs and represent the current storage limitation for consumer-available discs. The reason they have more space than a conventional DVD is the lasers in the readers/players/burners are more fine-tuned (same concept here) and they can fit more readable "pits" on the disc.

Now with that being said, after Blu-Ray and HD-DVD reach their storage limits with increased layers it would be theoretically possible for both consortiums to release a "2nd Gen" format of Blu-Ray and HD-DVD discs, taking advantage of this new technology (if it is commercially available at that point).

But more than likely manufacturers would create a new format (new specs and name) than "upgrade" the formats of Blu-Ray and HD-DVD discs.

[Tom @ Sep 27th 2006 7:07PM]

What a stupid, misleading title. This story has nothing to do with CD-Rs, the technology will lead to a new format 12-cm disc. Same old Engadget...

[Nobuyuki Idei @ Sep 27th 2006 11:30PM]

Yeah, but does such a laser attach easily to the back of a shark?

[STTOG @ Sep 28th 2006 3:59AM]

A new disk with an information layer able to work with a laser point in the tens of nanometers. Obviously a new burner with the new laser in it! New drivers? Yes. New faster computer so you don�t have to wait days to write all that information. New advertising campaign. They are going to love telling us all about there new TB disks. It�s a completely new format. But with all the competing technologies floating around who knows if it will ever get off the ground. I think soon there will be no moving parts in many computers. HDs and CDs are too big, slow, noisy and use too much power.

Im waiting to have my little yottabyte card or pin or dot, just sit it next to my computer and dump the whole thin in seconds. No more piles of disks using up bench space. Just a fluffy little teddy bear on your key ring with a wireless connection.

All technological progress is good and this one I�m sure has many uses beyond bigger CDs

[glacia00 @ Sep 28th 2006 2:07PM]

I thought the laser went on the head of the shark. Baring that a cheap reliable backup solution is desperately needed. There really is nowhere to backup a moderately large harddrive.