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General Electric makes breakthrough in microholographic storage
Technical VersionGeneral Electric researchers announced today that the company has made a breakthrough in the development of microholographic storage discs for mainstream use. Using G.E.'s current technology, a single holographic disc could ostensibly hold 500 gigabytes of data -- about 100 times the size of a standard DVD -- and still be readable. Better still, these discs should be commercially viable when they're introduced in 2011 or 2012, coming in at around 10 cents per gigabyte (a pittance compared to Blu-ray's initial price of $1 per gigabyte).Layman's VersionYou know those holographic Jurassic Park stickers you have on the spine of your middle school Trapper Keeper? They're putting those on CDs to make them bigger! That is to say, on the inside. They'll be the same size on the outside, and should still fit snugly within your Saved By The Bell CD case.[Via Engadget]
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.
