New TDK 4-layer Blu-ray prototype stores up to 100GB of data

May 20, 2005

Just when HD-DVD thought they were catching up close to Blu-Ray's capacity with a 3-layer 45GB disc, TDK has developed a Blu-ray disc prototype that uses four layers giving a capacity of 100GB. By making changes to the recording material, this prototype also supports double the record speed of current Blu-ray media. This means that with a suitable recorder, a 100GB 4-layer Blu-ray disc will take roughly the same length of time to record as the current 50GB 2-layer Blu-ray disc.

So far, no standard exists for 4-layer Blu-ray media, so TDK is proposing its prototype to the Blu-Ray Disc Association. Sony expects 4-layer Blu-ray media to hit the market in 2007, the time they expect to commercialise their own 4-layer Blu-ray media. Until now, the 45GB 3-layer HD-DVD looked like a good way to help promote HD-DVD since it meant the capacity was not as much of a deciding factor when compared with Blu-Ray. However this 100GB Blu-ray prototype will likely help boost Blu-ray supporters again by offering over double the capacity of even Toshiba's 3-layer HD-DVD media.

TDK has developed a prototype Blu-ray Disc that can store twice as much data, and record it at twice the speed, as existing Blu-ray Discs. The new format is expected to be particular popular for data archiving.

The disc, unveiled at a TDK exhibition in Tokyo, can record data at 72Mbit/s, double the 36Mbit/s rate for current Blu-ray Discs. TDK increased the write speed by using a more powerful laser and making some changes to the material of the disc's recording layer, said Nobuyuki Koike a spokesman for TDK.

The first generation of Blu-ray discs can already record data faster than it is transmitted in high-definition TV broadcasts, so the faster recording speed isn't needed there. But it will be advantageous when content is copied from a hard-disc drive to an optical disc for back-up or archiving, said Koike.

Read the full article here.

I don't think Toshiba would be too happy if this 4-layer Blu-ray media becomes approved by the Blu-Ray Association. Then again, while 100GB will be ideal for archiving large quantities of data, very few if any HD movies would need more than 50GB, unless they plan on using less compression. Then again, Sony expects to commercialise 100GB and even 200GB (8-layer) Blu-ray media at a later stage.

Source: TechWorld - Storage news