GE microholographic storage promises cheap 500GB discs, Blu-ray and DVD compatibility

Ah, holographic storage -- you've held so much promise for cheap optical media since you were first imagined in research papers published in the early 60s. Later today, GE will be trying to keep the dream alive when it announces a new technique that promises to take holographic storage mainstream. GE's breakthrough in microholographics -- which, as the name implies, uses smaller, less complex holograms to achieve three-dimensional digital storage -- paves the way for players that can store about 500GB of data on standard-sized optical discs while still being able to read DVD and Blu-ray media. Better yet, researchers claim a price of about 10 cents per gigabyte compared to the nearly $1 per gigabyte paid when Blu-ray was introduced. The bad news? We're talking 2011 or 2012 by the time microholographics devices and media are introduced and even then it'll only be commercialized for use by film studios and medical institutions. In other words, you'll likely be streaming high-def films to your OLED TV long before you have a microholographic player in the living room.

Update: And out pops the press release.

[Eric Frazer @ Apr 27th 2009 3:04AM]

how many times do we have to hear about a 500gb disk before it happens?? talk to me when its actually in production.

[birder @ Apr 27th 2009 7:02AM]

@Eric Frazer: We've been waiting so long that now 500GB isn't impressive anymore. I want to see optical media to be an order of magnitude more than solid state/platters. Where's the breakthrough for 5000GB holographic storage? That's something I could use now.

[霽月瀛台 @ Apr 27th 2009 7:18AM]

Can it save the car company?

[OneLove @ Apr 27th 2009 9:29AM]

promises, promises.

[rock99rock @ Apr 27th 2009 11:14AM]

@Eric Frazer:

Thank you for that. It was exactly the first comment I wanted to see.

[RoboDan @ Apr 27th 2009 3:05PM]

Make it into a holographic TV and I'm sold.

Otherwise, pass

[Wwhat @ Apr 27th 2009 3:09PM]

@霽月瀛台
GE not GM
GE (general electric) doesn't make cars, they make toasters and nuclear reactors.

[Levi @ Apr 27th 2009 3:57PM]

birder: at $0.10/GB, it is on par with hard disk storage, and as long as these disks are rewritable, they could be more convenient for storage. That's a terabyte for $100, on a media that is much easier to replace and to back up than hard drives, which requires more hassle to swap or back up with a raid array.

I picture using these disks as storage for media; all my music collection on one disk, throw in another right after to back it up. Never lose anything, and a 0.5TB storage media is only an eject button away.

Article says it won't e available for consumers though >:0

[lxuke @ Apr 27th 2009 3:05AM]

help me...errr i forgot your name...you're our only hope!

[lxuke @ Apr 27th 2009 3:06AM]

p.s. That was a stupid comment but it sounded funny in my head

[nerdtalker @ Apr 27th 2009 3:11AM]

You forgot his name? Obi Wan Kenobi?

[junyor Mynt @ Apr 27th 2009 3:13AM]

no it was pretty funny. Of course we are ore likely to see actual holograms video mainstreamed before we see this.

[Magnulus @ Apr 27th 2009 3:49AM]

Let me help you: It's Ooby Doob Benoobi. (Middle name, Scooby Dooby)

[Buis @ Apr 27th 2009 3:24AM]

I'm betting that these guys will find themselves swimming with concrete boots pretty soon, because I can't believe we'll ever get to have really good stuff like this in the consumer space...

[Wwhat @ Apr 27th 2009 3:12PM]

It''s meant for libraries and archives, not consumers, and also GE are a company who pour some concrete themselves, they are the doers not the victims, they lean on people rather than getting leaned on.

[Noah @ Apr 27th 2009 3:50AM]

To stream 1080p movies to my OLED tv in 2012, I'll have to have a crappy bitrate to not go over the internet data cap, reducing the quality of the film to just above DVD quality. Thanks cable!

[Carbonize @ Apr 27th 2009 10:52AM]

What has that to do with the price of fish? How does your internet bandwidth cap affect what you can stream from your computer to your TV? The only thing an internet cap would affect would be your ability to download pirated movies.

[Carbonize @ Apr 27th 2009 10:56AM]

Hmm unless you mean stream as in NetFlix style streaming but then what would that have to do with a story about holographioc storage medium?

[Superstition @ Apr 27th 2009 3:52AM]

I wish something like this would come along. The price of Blu-Ray players are still a bit high, despite affordable movies. I wish Sony wouldn't rest on it's laurels and would push the discs as a viable and affordable solution to DVD-R's and DVD's as a backup medium.

[Max @ Apr 27th 2009 3:54AM]

Didn't a Japanese company announce 1TB holographic storage on optical disks about three years ago?

[tekdroid @ Apr 27th 2009 3:56AM]

As always, when I see it selling in K-Mart, I'll believe it (TM).

The researchers who worked on this since 2003 must be excited, but as our lovable analysts like to say:
“It’s always well to remember that the most important technical specification in any storage device, however impressive the science behind it, is price,” said James N. Porter, an independent analyst of the storage market."

[AMiSH PiRATE @ Apr 27th 2009 4:01AM]

$50/disc doesn't sound that great once you factor in read/write speed and player/writer cost. Is this cost projected on a 2011/12 or based on what it would cost for today's market?

[Shinigami @ Apr 27th 2009 4:05AM]

If they did the projecting stuff, you'd be scared of numbers.

[Shinigami @ Apr 27th 2009 4:03AM]

Blu-ray = 25gb, $1 per gb. Cheap holographics = 500gb, $0.1 per gb.
Blu-ray disk = $25. Cheap holographics disk = $50.

To me it looks like they're asking you to pay more for the same media. While I see progress in the cost per gb, I don't see progress in cost per media unit.

[G @ Apr 27th 2009 4:23AM]

but when you buy a disc you aren't buying it because you like shiny discs, but because you want some gigabytes to store your stuff on. So the price per gigabyte is definitely more important.


as long as blu-rays cost $1 per GB nobody will buy them for data storage. $0.1 per GB is more interesting as it kind of rivals external hard drives, but it probably won't be rewritable at that cost and almost certainly not as reliable.

[IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII (BarCODE) @ Apr 27th 2009 9:49PM]

Where are you getting your numbers from, I have seen 25GB BD-R media for around $2 per disc. Newegg.com has a 10 pack for $45 or about $4.50 per disk.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817607009
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=Property&Subcategory=71&Description=&Type=&N=2000100071&srchInDesc=&MinPrice=&MaxPrice=&PropertyCodeValue=875:22109&PropertyCodeValue=875:23456

[Pies @ Apr 27th 2009 6:32AM]

Seagate Barracuda 1000GB - $85 ($0.085 per GB).

I really can't see this thing taking off at higher price than harddrives.

[IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII (BarCODE) @ Apr 27th 2009 9:50PM]

Yes, but a HDD is not as portable or durable (Shock resistant) as an optical disk.

[Skullivan @ Apr 28th 2009 1:20PM]

Those prices are based on when Blu-ray was first released to consumers. You can get 25GB BD-R's for under $7 per disc, something like $0.25 per GB. By the time these holographic discs are commercially available BD-R's will be much cheaper than that and there'll probably be 100GB discs available.

[m @ Apr 29th 2009 1:47AM]

@Shinigami: what exactly is your point? it clearly says it's backwards compatible, meaning, you wouldn't use a $50 disk to give your grandmother some photos. you'd burn her a CD, like you do now. realistically, the number of applications for a 500GB optical disk are currently pretty limited. there certainly aren't a lot of 500GB files on my computer, at least.

i wonder how long it would take to burn 500GB.

[Paul @ Apr 27th 2009 4:12AM]

Luke, I am your father?

[zfurie @ Apr 27th 2009 10:15AM]

..and before that I was your mother.

[fred @ Apr 27th 2009 4:26AM]

we've heard these kind of promises so many times.

[Xoxidine @ Apr 27th 2009 4:39AM]

I remember seeing that a 500GB Blu-ray disc was already achieved.

http://www.pioneer.eu/eur/content/press/news/500GB_Bluray.html

http://www.macworld.com/article/44876/2005/05/tdk.html

[jackygreen @ Apr 27th 2009 4:52AM]

Only if their was some kind of way to send data to others without using any media? Oh well I'm going to go play on the Internet or search for some reuseable flash drive.

[superhobo @ Apr 27th 2009 6:13AM]

That's nice...wait...but...argh

[TheWakeUpCall @ Apr 27th 2009 7:01AM]

You mean this disc is going to cost $50...?

[TheWakeUpCall @ Apr 27th 2009 7:02AM]

just thinking about it... by the time it comes out, a 500GB external HDD will probs cost the same.

[Carbonize @ Apr 27th 2009 10:55AM]

You can buy a 1TB external hard drive for about £70 here in the UK at present.

[Majdan @ Apr 27th 2009 7:55AM]

"you'll likely be streaming high-def films to your OLED TV long before you have a microholographic player in the living room."

Unless the ISPs come along and pull the rug out from under us.

[mirakutea @ Apr 27th 2009 9:00AM]

All the ISPs have to do is nothing, if they don't upgrade their networks then it will collapse like a house of cards.

[kevin @ Apr 27th 2009 8:56AM]

"The bad news? We're talking 2011 or 2012 by the time microholographics devices and media are introduced "

Really? You can't wait two freaking years for a disc that holds 20 times what a single layer BD-R holds? Yeesh.

[mirakutea @ Apr 27th 2009 8:58AM]

yea most likely 10 years before something like this is widely available to consumers.

[nxp3 @ Apr 27th 2009 8:57AM]

I don't understand how it will be cheaper than bluray but not be commercialize for mass usage. Why only film industry and medical field if it's so cheap to make. Doesn't that defeat the purpose of it being cheap. If bluray takes hold, we won't want another media for a while even if it does everything better. Movie studio can't even fill up a bluray so why another one for. It will just be used for computer storage.

[Eric @ Apr 27th 2009 10:34AM]

Help me Obi Wan. I'm too old and fat to fit into the slot any more.

[ScooterDe @ Apr 27th 2009 5:30PM]

GE: "The day (will come) when you can store your entire high definition movie collection on one disc.''

...say what? Are they threatening that this disk is going to wipe out my movie collection?

[loosely_coupled @ Apr 27th 2009 7:36PM]

I'm sure holographic storage technology will eventually be incredible, this current announcement is not very exciting, the reason why is this:

According to wikipedia (and link to press release in December 2008), PIONEER has developed 16-layer 400GB Blu-ray discs than can be read in *EXISTING PLAYERS* on the market and eventually burned on *existing* writers -- that are to be released at some point in 2009.

Besides the pioneer 400GB, many other companies have quad-layer 100GB (per side) Blu-ray discs in the works that work with current hardware. So if they can get these many-layer BD discs production soon and particularly the writable version, then holographic discs will have to either offer some incredible read/write speed or are going to have to greatly increase that storage capacity to be worth the costly hardware

[Nate DiDonato @ Apr 28th 2009 6:36AM]

"and even then it'll only be commercialized for use by film studios and medical institutions"

I understand why they'd do this. Government/film/medical fields are usually the guinea pigs for technologies that may eventually be adapted for standard consumer use.

If time/cost/efficiency changes over the next two years, it won't even make it to the guinea pig stage.

My question is how long will the discs last (durability/lifespan)? If they are more archival (say 100+ years), then it'd be very well worth it current optical or magnetic formats.

[PropagandaPanda @ Apr 28th 2009 8:31PM]

So whats the advantage of Optical media anyway? At these sizes, why cant we just use Solid state storage?
I havent used a cd/dvd for storage or transferring in years, pretty much since 1gb flash drives became so cheap. I bought 5 of them for 15bucks in a value pack.

So what am I missing?