Just when
Blue laser optical drives are getting ready to start shipping later this year, InPhase expects to launch a Tapestry holographic drive by the end of 2006. Like Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, InPhase's holographic storage technology also uses a blue-laser, but rather than storing data on one or two layers it stores data in holograms in a 1.5mm think layer. The disc size is 130mm (5.1") or 10mm (.4") wider than CD and DVD media and is held in a cartridge to protect the sensitive recording layer from light exposure.
They started their development back in 2000, but it was not until now that they could succeed in creating and also demonstrating a working holographic optical drive. Their prototype cartridge was developed by Hitachi Maxwell Ltd, loading mechanism by ALPS Electric Co. Ltd and the pickup read/write head by Displaytech Inc.
Their initial discs will be write-once with a throughput of 20Mbps (~2.5MB/sec). The initial disc capacity is expected to hold 200GB, but by 2009 they expect to be shipping drives that support a capacity of up to 1.6TB per disc. 8T8 used our news submit to let us know about the following news:
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InPhase's holographic storage media stores data in three-dimensional holograms cut into a polymer material 1.5 mm (0.06 inch) thick that is placed between two 130 mm (5.1-inch) plastic discs. Because holographic devices are able to store data in three-dimensional "pages," they are expected to have a much larger capacity than CDs or DVDs, which store data only on the disc's surface. By 2009, InPhase hopes to be shipping drives that can store as much as 1.6TB on a single disc, she said. Although scientists have been able to demonstrate working holographic storage discs under controlled conditions, the technology is not yet mature enough to be commercialized, said Steve Duplessie, a senior analyst with Enterprise Strategy Group Inc., in Milford, Massachusetts. "Holographic storage in general has been this sort of Star Treky science project discussion for 10 years," he said. Read the full article here and some more info at Tom's Hardware.
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While it is likely too late to offer yet another storage solution for high definition video, if they manage to ship the drives at competing prices to DLT drives, they will likely be a good competitor to tape backup within businesses and enterprises. At the moment, Super DLT drives generally sell for between 3 to 5 grand which means that that if holographic storage drives can beat these prices it may mean a replacement for super DLT tapes (and possibly standard DLT) within the enterprise.
Unfortunately like HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray, holographic disc storage will not be without a format war either as Optware are working on their own holographic storage technology which they expect to begin shipping by the end of 2006 also. Apart from having a decision between two incompatible optical disc formats yet again, at least it should help bring down drive and media pricing quicker.
Source: InfoWorld
