5nm crystals could lead to vastly larger optical discs, mighty fine time machines
By Sean Hollister 
posted May 26th 2010 3:04AM
posted May 26th 2010 3:04AM
Blu-ray was already looking mighty fine at 25GB of storage per layer -- and if Sony manages to make the indigo foil sheets hold 33.4GB each, we certainly won't complain -- but Japanese researchers have discovered a compound that could leapfrog Blu-ray entirely. Scientists at the University of Tokyo discovered that by hitting 5-nanometer titanium pentoxide crystals with a laser, they could get the metal to change color and conduct less electricity, leading to what they believe is an effective new medium for optical data storage. At 5nm, the small black crystals could reportedly hold 1,000 times the data of Blu-ray at the same density, and cost less to boot -- the scholars reportedly synthesized the formula simply by adding hydrogen to the common, comparatively cheap titanium dioxide, while heating the compound over a fire. Ahh, nanotechnology -- making our lives easier, one microscopic crystal or tube at a time.
when will the "Nano-ray" discs hit the stores? wish i don't have to wait for 10 years...
@2her0ck I wished that they had made the drives smaller when Blu-Ray hit - the same size as MiniDVD at most and it could hold 15GB just like HD-DVD. Current drives take up way too much space and encourages netbook manufacturers to just leave them out.
@2her0ck
It better be at least 10 years, I just bought all these blu-rays!
Even if the players are backwards compatible, my OCD wouldn't like having two types of media on my shelf.
@2her0ck
"Nano-ray"
Nice name idea, lol.
"Nice earrings ma'am."
"Earrings? Bitch, these are flash drives! I got seasons 1-36 of LOST on the left one alone!"
@ThundaChunky
hilarious, even though the series finale to lost aired this past Sunday.
@genomalice :'( why did it have to end
@genomalice
Yeah, but by the time this comes out, Lost will be in the 36th season of the reboot.
I wouldn't be surprised if it was called Red-Ray for 2K and 4K resolution movies.
Why Red-Ray?
Because of this: http://www.red.com/accessories/digital_storage/
RED FTW
Imagine the amount of p...
Very impressive.
@sebiiau
I would use this to hold all my porn. I would need about 6 crystals though.
No wait, I just double checked... Make that 7 crystals.
THIS is what I'm skipping Blu-Ray for!
Wow, 30-50 TB data discs. With these, we could finally put an end to magnetic tape drives.
@Dante of the Inferno No, magnetic storage will still be used where re-writing is necessary.
@SlimSpaceman Don't need to rewrite data at those densities.
@SlimSpaceman
I said TAPE, not hard disc drives: http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/19/japanese-gurus-unveil-50tb-magnetic-tape-cartridges-are-officia/
@Dante of the Inferno
As with everything from Red its vaporware. The company has a million computer renderings.
Also, it'll be over-priced, their CF module costs $500, something that should cost $5.
Also, Red-ray doesn't use any new optical technology, they just have a different codec.
Besides, the name is stupid technically. Blu-ray is "blu" because it uses blue-violet spectrum of light (405 nm laser), a "RED" ray is basically infrared light (~650nm). Basically its calling itself a DVD.
I'm having trouble with the math. Blu-Ray is 405nm. 405nm / 5nm = 81x increase in data density, not 1000x.
So a 5nm technology on a 12cm disc should be able to hold about 2TB, and [since 8cm discs hold about 30% of the data of a 12cm disc,] an 8cm disc should hold about 600GB.
1000x or 81x, either way, it would be nice to take this opportunity to switch to 8cm discs as the standard seeing as how 600GB should suffice well for the distribution of any individual production.
like laser disc large!!
@MVMNT
laser discs never had much data capacity. but in terms of physical capacity, you can almost fit a while pizza on them!
I hope burning speeds increase just as much (an increase should happen due to the density but the question is how much). If you're stuck at Bluray speeds of 36MB/s it will take you 16days to burn that 50TB disc!
I'm still waiting for that spherical storage.
@Schmich
I'm sure they would resort to multiple read/write heads or even an array of heads at that point.
At least, that's where i think it's headed.
Hmm... and what's about the laser needed to read the data? I don't know of any laser diode which is capable of emitting such a small beam...
@s
That's what *really smart* she said.
If you need that much space to store your porn collection, the size of your genitals must equal the size of the crystals.
@B3astofthe3ast
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/04/photogalleries/giant-crystals-cave/images/primary/crystal-cave-1.jpg
@weirdo557 Makes me think the "size of crystals" comment should have been specified...
"Ahh, nanotechnology -- making our lives easier, one NANOscopic crystal or tube at a time."
-fix'd
and how's the lifespan gonna be?
i wouldn't wanna find my multitera collection of porn corrupt a month after burning
Japs ..Continue Rocking Ppl... You guys have made real difference to world of Electronics....
I'd love to have all TV Shows in Full HD released since 1980 on two of this disks (and two backups safely stored elsewhere) :)
and a drem is to have ONE DISK with complete LOST series in IMAX HD format/resolution + all other verisons Super Hi-Vision, 4K, 2K, 1080p, etc :)
And of course... this disks should have a long lifespan (20+ years at least)
@DamirSecki I think you'll find most shows from 1980 aren't available in HD
@Khav
If it was recorded with 35mm film, it shouldn't be a problem (re)releasing it in HD.
@joquarky winner!
@joquarky I may be wrong, but I've always thought that TV shows weren't recorded on 35mm film.
@Khav
Star Trek was recorded on 35mm.
Optical? Seriously?
either that's a very small petri dish or those crystals in the photo aren't 5 nm
@weeandystheman
Chunks of crystals, methinks.
Finally something that can keep up with my p*rn collection
I think you meant "1,000 times the data of Blu-ray at the same _size_", not density, because the whole point of those crystals is that they allow for much higher density.
Yhea, backup all my blu-rays on one disc xD
I see none of that added hydrogen in the molecular formula.
@apache2
Sounds painful, what with the sharp edges and all.
first and formost this technology is amazing... you will need new hardware for this... you cheap bastards who expect a firmware date to fix this your wrong.... you will be the ones who get the update then try to burn the max capacity and have slow speeds cause your hardware is outdated... like a windows xp certified pc running on windows 7.... usb 3.0 and a nice quad core processor with ddr3 ram will solve this... dont use old hardware and complain
I can see this as a way to make disks mini sized, as any larger at that density would have massive jitter IMO. And as for write speeds, i'm sure its limited to how fast the lazer diode can turn on and off (but that's a guess)
Imagine - by 2015 we will have 100TB of storage in a PS4 or an SHV drive (don't know what it is going to be called) and about 500GB in phones!
"5nm crystals could lead to vastly larger optical discs, mighty fine time machines". Ahem, I think optical discs are too large as it is... Engadget, you may want to rephrase your title....
This is only the beginning...
Imagine how the HDD/SSD World will respond to this. . .
Source article says....
DVDs and Blu-ray discs are made using alloys with germanium and other rare metals. The price of the compound discovered by researchers is about one-hundredth of the price, and is safe to handle.
WOW ! :D ...so 5 TB ish at only $ 0.0025 ...should be $ 0.00025 ...but that's even more impossible practially...
cool so then everyone can afford 4K 3D Storage ! :D