Maxell to offer 300GB holographic discs 'late 2006'

[ps2xboxcube]

Maxell will ship its first holographic storage system late next year, the company has pledged.

The storage specialist will initially offer a removable system based on 300GB media and capable of transfering data at a rate of 20MBps, Maxell said. However, the company said the technology, designed by InPhase Technologies, is capable of achieving 1.6TB per disk - and that's uncompressed capacity - with a 120MBps bandwidth.

InPhase was founded in December 2000 by Lucent, and has been working on holographic storage - in which data is encoded as a 3D pattern written and read by laser beam - ever since. In addition to the colossal storage capacity, InPhase promises a data archive life of over 50 years, not much different to the longevity claimed by most optical media makers - a CD-RW for instance will typically retain data for 20-100 years, depending on which manufacturer you speak to.

InPhase isn't the only company promoting holographic storage. Japan's Optware - which in July won $14m in funding from four companies, one of which was Toshiba; it also has backing from Intel Capital - is working on a DVD-sized holographic disc is says will hold more than 1TB of data with a throughput of 1Gbps.

The format is dubbed HVD - Holographic Versatile Disc - and Optware is already pushing a 200GB HVD-RW disc type through the HVD Alliance, an organisation supported by Optware, Fuji Photo and half-a-dozen or so Japanese chemicals companies. ®

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/24/maxell_holo_storage/

So howlong before this takes over and kills Blue-Ray and HD-DVD to become the new standard for Movies and Data-Storage? Will this be the new format for the XBOX 3? Will Sony continue to use Blue-ray for PS4 or give in to HVD compatibility? What do all you guys think?

 

[weaksauce]

So how much will it cost?

 

[winstonsmith1978]

So howlong before this takes over and kills Blue-Ray and HD-DVD to become the new standard for Movies and Data-Storage? Will this be the new format for the XBOX 3? Will Sony continue to use Blue-ray for PS4 or give in to HVD compatibility? What do all you guys think?

Being that Sony has switched formats every gen, i would imagine that this is a likely option for ps4. Actually, all next next gen systems will probably use this or if bandwidth provides, an HDD.

 

[Gholbine]

I imagine this technology will simply replace tape-drive backups, for the time being. Will be awesome to see it in the Xbox 720 and PS4.

 

[winstonsmith1978]

Being that Sony has switched formats every gen, i would imagine that this is a likely option for ps4. Actually, all next next gen systems will probably use this or if bandwidth provides, an HDD.

Actually, i take back what i said. The standard for movies and hd broadcast won't jump above 720p,1080i and 1080p for a long time. So you won't need more space then what blu-ray offers.

This will be used more for storage.

 

[AlphaWolf]

This will be a kickass format for video cameras. They are talking about compact flash size disks that can hold 30+gb.

 

[Brimstone]

I don't think it will kill Blu-Ray or HD-DVD (though it's supposed to be backwards compatible with HD-DVD) because of the intial cost. Hopefully by the time Xbox 3 comes out around the 2010 time frame, a read only version of HVD it might be manufactured at a low cost. The read speed is so much faster than Blu-Ray/HD-DVD that load times would be shorter.

Of course making the HVD discs cheap for mass production is also another consideration.

 

[mckmas8808]

So howlong before this takes over and kills Blue-Ray and HD-DVD to become the new standard for Movies and Data-Storage?

Let me ask you a question. When and why will movie companies actually think about HVD?

 

[AlphaWolf]

Let me ask you a question. When and why will movie companies actually think about HVD?

When sales of BR and HDDVD movies start to decline, just like they have done with DVDs. So figure 10 years or less.

 

[weaksauce]

Actaully, sony does have a projector with 4000x2000px.
But wouldn't this be too expensive for movies or games? Sounds kinda advanced.

 

[mckmas8808]

When sales of BR and HDDVD movies start to decline, just like they have done with DVDs. So figure 10 years or less.

Great answer and I agree with you.

 

[Nesh]

When sales of BR and HDDVD movies start to decline, just like they have done with DVDs. So figure 10 years or less.

DVD sales declined?
How come?

 

[AlphaWolf]

DVD sales declined?
How come?

http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/7787.html

 

[The GameMaster]

Actually... Toshiba (the one that created the HD-DVD format) backs the HVD format and has invested in it.

http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/News/Details.aspx?NewsId=14414

Toshiba and four other Japanese companies decided to invest in Optoware, the company who has developed a high capacity holographic storage technology.

Optware Corp. is also talking to several U.S. venture capital firms as part of its latest round of financing. This should finish shortly and the company is trying to raise US$14 million, according to Optware President and Chief Executive Officer Yoshio Aoki. Aoki declined comment on which U.S. firms are considering investing.

The cash will enable Yokohama-based Optware to finish development of its HVD (Holographic Versatile Disc) technology that enables DVD-sized discs to store up to 1T byte of data, he said.

The HVD technology stores data inside a disc as holographic patterns.

Following the financing, HVD player/recorder machines and first-generation writeable discs that can store 200G bytes will go on sale from next June for the enterprise storage market, and HVD players accompanied by 100G-byte read-only HVD discs should be available for the consumer market in 2007, Aoki said.

These capacities are considerably more than current optical disc technology can manage. A single-layer DVD disc stores 4.7G bytes and a single-layer HD-DVD disc, a new format that Toshiba is promoting as a replacement for DVDs, stores 15G bytes.

Toshiba's HD-DVD Promotion Division declined further comment on the company's investment, except to say Toshiba is investigating HVD as a future optical storage format, said Junko Furuta, a spokeswoman for Toshiba in Tokyo.

Optware's Aoki also declined comment on Toshiba's investment, but he did say the cash is a big vote of confidence in HVD, a technology that the company has been developing since Optware was formed in 1999.

Optware also plans to develop credit card-sized devices that store 30G bytes of data and memory-card sized devices that store 5G bytes. One of or both of these products could be on the market in early 2007, according to Yasuhide Kageyama, manager of business development and marketing at Optware.

Apart from Toshiba, the other Japanese companies that have invested in Optware are Dai-ichi Seimei Capital Co. Ltd, which is connected to Japanese insurance company The Dai-ichi Mutual Life Insurance Co.; Daiwa Securities SMBC Principal Investments Co. Ltd., and The Shoko Chukin Bank, Aoki said.

Personally... neither HD-DVD and BluRay is a true next generation optical format is the increase of storage capacity is minimal at best and the transfer performance is LOWER than the DVD format.

THIS format is a true next generation optical format as it not only offers *MUCH* greater capacity compared to the DVD format, but it also offers a much faster transfer performance. I see this format as a legitimate successor to the DVD format... and this format should be available about the same time the BluRay/HD-DVD becomes available.

 

[BlueTsunami]

and this format should be available about the same time the BluRay/HD-DVD becomes available.

But i'll repost what has been already posted

"At what price?"

BluRay is supposedley supposed to be expensive by itself. Would Holographic discs be consumer ready next year (for data storage and movie playback)?

 

[Gholbine]

Remember, the first Blu-Ray based devices went on sale in early 2003. Blu-Ray will come into commercial use by mid-2006. This is a 3 and a half year gap between releasing the first systems, and the technology actually becoming viable for commercial use. Applying the same logic to HVD, we won't see commercial HVD use until at least 2010.

In other words, HVD could possibly be Blu-Ray's successor.

 

[Thowllly]

A holographic disc by late 2006? I'll believe that when I see it. I've heard about new holographic disc formats regularly for nearly a decade now, and it's always 'just around the corner'. But maybe it'll be different this time, we can always hope.