InPhase delays Tapestry holographic storage solution to late 2009

Wait, wait -- you're telling us InPhase Technologies may be the latest and greatest poster child for vaporware? Say it ain't so! After promising (and promising) a holographic storage solution for upwards of three years now, the outfit is delaying its dead-to-the-world Tapestry solution yet again, this time to late 2009. In theory, the company would introduce a drive that could record up to 300GB on a $180 CD-sized disc around this time next year, but with Blu-ray already up to 50GB and Royal Digital Media introducing a 100GB alternative, who's to say 300GB won't look puny by November '09? And besides, we're also hearing that GE's Polymer Systems Lab is developing a "layered approach to holographic storage" that will soon result in -- you guessed it -- 300GB discs. The difference? GE is a real company.

[Speney G @ Nov 3rd 2008 9:44AM]

Please make it stop.....I can't take it anymore. Shouldn't we just have isolinear chips already?

[Testies, Testies, 1, 2... 3? @ Nov 3rd 2008 12:30PM]

Vaporgraphic Storage FTW!

[Kamokazi @ Nov 3rd 2008 9:44AM]

Who do these people even think their target market is?

Consumers are probably out of the price range.

Enterprise customers are either:

A) Using off-site backups over the 'net
B) Planning on switching from their old school taps to online backups off-site
C) Are using higher than 300GB capacity tapes or hard drives because they must have physical backups.
D) Are going to continue to use tapes because they are stubborn and hate change.

[web2.oh @ Nov 3rd 2008 11:30AM]

This product is aimed towards long-term archival storage. Theoretically, these discs should last a hell of a lot longer than tape, are more robust than hard drives, and hold much more than other optical media...or at least that's what all the marketing has been saying! Also note that this is WORM (Write Once Read Many) media.

Definitely NOT a consumer product, so everyone please shut the hell up about how you can get a larger, cheaper hard drive from Newegg right now, it doesn't matter! Compare this to tape-based solutions and large NAS or SAN setups, not cheap consumer drives.

[nerdtalker @ Nov 3rd 2008 9:44AM]

It'll come out at about the same time as Duke Nukem Forever. You know, it will be their packaging media.

Vaporware unite!

[Shinigami @ Nov 3rd 2008 9:48AM]

The difference?
Price, fellas, price. GE will prolly put something like $20 instead of $180.
Or at least I hope so...

[Anand D @ Nov 3rd 2008 9:53AM]

Aren't hard disks cheaper?

[Joe @ Nov 3rd 2008 10:49AM]

Significantly cheaper. Probably faster too, and using well-established and supported hardware.

[iEye @ Nov 3rd 2008 9:55AM]

holographic storage?

Empty promises....

[Charles Lee @ Nov 3rd 2008 10:08AM]

The whole idea of holographic storage is to store data in 3 dimensions. If that is the case, why would you need layers?

[DoomGaZer @ Nov 3rd 2008 11:36AM]

Because "3 dimensions of data" doesn't have to take up the entire thickness of the disc.

[sr @ Nov 3rd 2008 2:48PM]

Yeah I'm expecting cube instead of a disc.

[Chris @ Nov 3rd 2008 10:13AM]

You should of made 'vaporware' in the article link to that one game system, the Phantom? I think?

[YourTechSupport @ Nov 3rd 2008 10:20AM]

Wait. Can't you get 1tb drives these days for the same price?
Just get one of those SATA-USB docks and swap as needed.

[Valicore @ Nov 3rd 2008 10:25AM]

They're screwed. 300gb sounded awesome in 2005, but now... 180 bucks for 300 gb just sounds like a rip-off. By this time next year they'll be dead, buried, and probably almost completely forgotten..

[Sporkinum @ Nov 3rd 2008 10:32AM]

We use AIT5 tapes for backup. Get about 800gb per tape and tapes are around $60 each.

[chefgon_ign @ Nov 3rd 2008 11:09AM]

A 500gb external hard drive is significantly less than $180 and will work on damn near any machine in the world without any extra hardware or drivers. Even if this was available today nobody would want it, by the end of next year it's going to be a complete joke. We'll be inching up on 300gb flash drives by then.

[Magallanes @ Nov 3rd 2008 11:20AM]

OT:
Do anybody remember about "Jem and the holograms"?

[VanDamme @ Nov 3rd 2008 12:24PM]

If it's WORM media, you guys aren't comparing apples with apples. WORMs are used to hold reports and such that may be used in a court of law. You can't just bring in a hard drive with easily manipulated data.

Data Protection
WORM disk's primary function is to provide long-term, "read-only" protection for data. Applications can write data to the disk but are not allowed to make any changes after the data is frozen. Locking mechanisms are controlled by the application at either the file-level or the volume-level and freeze the data as "read-only". The data remains secure and easily accessible and cannot be altered for the life of the record, a mandatory requirement of SEC Rule 17a-4.

WORM media cost significantly more than comparible non-WORM media.

[hustler @ Nov 3rd 2008 12:42PM]

Where is crystal storage like in Stargate series ????
In general everything is about quantity but very little about quality,very sad.Everyone just want to milk us.

[saq @ Nov 3rd 2008 12:57PM]

I'm really wondering what the point of this coming out now is. LTO4 has been out for a year now, and that's 800gb uncompressed. LTO5 will be out sometime in early 2010 which will be 1600gb uncompressed, this tech doesn't seem like its going to stack up.

[smak @ Nov 3rd 2008 1:40PM]

Too little, too late. Literally. R.I.P. InPhase.

[Mark @ Nov 3rd 2008 1:59PM]

What a shock!

[Dane Elshof @ Nov 3rd 2008 6:35PM]

InPhase is a really company too. I drive past their building everyday and the parking lot is full. They must be doing something :)

[sloop @ Nov 5th 2008 1:53PM]

the company has no future. Upper management is not in touch with the technical complexities of the product, resulting in the board being misled about the timeline. this most recent schedule was not based on reality or input from engineers and without any doubt will not be met yet again. the technology is promising but not in the hands of incompetent Inphase management.

[Bagha @ Nov 4th 2008 12:07AM]

Holographic storage has been promised for SO MANY YEARS. I remember reading about it at least 7 years ago, and their problem was the same problem they have now: with every advancement they make, drive manufacturers catch up in size by the time they're ready to manufacture.

The example of Blu-ray media upping to 100GB in this article is EXACTLY what I'm talking about, and it's precisely the reason this medium's been having such a tough time throughout its existence.

[Xepol @ Nov 4th 2008 12:46AM]

Or you could spend 40$ on an USB HDD box and 130$ a tereabyte on SATA harddrives.

And the lawsuits from the investors when they realize that prospective customers already know this should finish off any sign of the company.

[icStatic @ Nov 13th 2008 2:43PM]

It's not 3 years. I have a PC mag from 1997 describing this tech by this company! 11 years and still nothing. So yes, its another DNF!