InPhase
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InPhase out of business, assets seized for back taxes
It's been something like five years that we've been eagerly waiting for InPhase to finally release that revolutionary holographic storage solution, and while there has been plenty of drama in the way of release dates promised and pushed back, and even some layoffs to keep things interesting, the company has been pretty, pretty quiet lately. As it turns out, this has been due to the fact that employees have been busy enough updating their resumes. "We were expecting it for a long time," said one employee, among the sixty or so who picked up their final paychecks last week. "So it wasn't a big surprise." To put a finer point on things, it's been announced that the Colorado Department of Revenue has seized the company's assets for non-payment of taxes. According to The Register, the state has changed the locks and announced that everything on the premises will be auctioned off, down to the fixtures and furniture. This is certainly an ignominious end to a once great idea, but as you know every cloud has a silver lining: If you're looking to get into the holographic storage business, drop us a line. We've heard that some equipment is becoming available soon -- and at a great price.
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.
InPhase Technologies finally delivers... layoffs
We've been hearing about InPhase Technologies' Tapestry 300GB holographic storage disks since 2005, but we've never actually seen the product in action, even though the company has been promising ship dates the whole time -- and now it looks like we might never get the chance, as the company has apparently laid off "roughly half" of its workforce. The cuts are reportedly blamed on CEO Nelson Diaz refusing to listen to roadmaps from his engineers and setting unrealistic schedules -- hmm, you think that might be a problem after nearly three years of missed launch dates? There's still a chance we'll actually see these things make it out of the labs, but we're not holding out hope -- and we've got a feeling physical media might actually be dead when that happens.[Thanks, Meno]
Nintendo looking into holographic storage?
Holographic storage is a technology that we totally don't understand well enough to explain. Apparently, it's a method of storing data in which data is stored throughout the whole volume of a medium, rather than just the surface, allowing for more storage space on a disc. Basically, storage media with multiple-terabyte capacity.Nintendo's name has shown up as a joint applicant on a patent application by InPhase Technologies for a scanner to read such holographic discs. Is Nintendo planning to solve the hard-drive issue with massive overkill, or are they planning to introduce a new format for their next system's games -- with massive overkill? Maybe nothing will come of this. Or maybe nothing will come of this for a long time.[Via NeoGAF]
InPhase to finally ship Tapestry 300r holographic storage solution in May
Talk about escaping the label of vaporware by this much. We've been hearing that holographic storage was right around the bend from InPhase for well over three years now, but it has finally managed to get its ducks in a row and should start shipping the unicorn-like Tapestry 300r next month. The firm had a demonstrative version on display at NAB Show earlier this month, and apparently real live working units will be making their way out to archival junkies in just weeks. Granted, it will demand a whopping $18,000 to get a shipping label made with your address on it, and each piece of 300GB media is $180 -- but hey, that's the price you pay these days to know that you'll decompose before your data degrades.[Via The Register]
InPhase 300GB holographic storage solution out the door
With 1TB 3.5-inch hard drives making the rounds these days, a little bit of the charm has worn off of InPhase Technologies' 300GB holographic storage discs, which are now available for $180 a pop -- but only a little. The 1.5mm platters will scale up to 1.6TB by 2010, and data transfer rates are currently at 20MBps. The storage medium promises a 50-year lifespan for data, and the Tapestry HDS-300R drive for recording the data can emulate a DVD, CD, magnetic optical or tape drive to make building software to record to the discs as easy as can be. Strangely, InPhase doesn't want this thing pegged up for a boring life of data backup: according to Liz Murphy, InPhase marketing VP, "We're not going to play in the back-up market at all." Current clients include Turner Broadcasting, the US Geological Survey and Lockheed Martin -- hopefully they all got that memo on how very un-hip data backup is. A re-writeable version is due for 2008, and while we're not sure how much the Tapestry drive is going for, we figure if you have to ask... well, you know the rest.
